The quagmire in which the PSOE and the government have been engaged in recent months presents itself, at the end of the year, with an increasingly uncertain outcome. The trumpets of the end of the cycle seem to be heard, for the first time, within, to the delight of the fierce opposition to sanchismo, who has let his breath blow for two long years without managing to extract the slightest note. But in La Moncloa, where Pedro Sánchez has lived for more than seven years, the walls refuse to let such an irritating melody pass through.
Partners are getting angrier. Socialist women, more indignant. And the voters who gave birth to this coalition government, more disconcerted. Pedro Sánchez, on the contrary, is only perceived as thinner. This week before Christmas, he wanted to inject some of his lingering resistance into his downtrodden parish and, by bringing forward appointments and appearances, he showed himself ready to continue steering the ship as if nothing had happened. Until angry, outraged, and confused people dismount, the ship will continue to have a captain in command.
The expectation of the president’s usual political review of the year and his traditional Christmas drink with the press had gone red in many editorial offices and on this occasion, there was no room for a pin in the Monclovitian salons. Ministers and senior officials took up the boss’s message in the groups: we must calm the atmosphere, manage time better, accept mistakes and, after Christmas and the harsh winter, spring will arrive with ruling of the Constitutional Court on the amnesty lawwhich will allow the return of Puigdemont, the understanding with Junts and parliamentary support for the investiture. There’s still time and water in the pool if we don’t get nervous. And Sánchez wanted to show his people that he is not.
A seasoned Monclovite officer with years of Ferraz behind him, he highlighted to me the sportsmanship, almost obsessive, of the president due to his youth as a basketball player. “He likes to win” despite the situation on the pitch, the number of people sent off from the team or the little time he has left. Although he also added: “something will have to be done in January” to reverse the situation. Even the most Sanchist socialists today build their loyalty to the government with a mixture of confidence in the leader and resignation in the face of the scale of the mistakes made.
For now, go to Moncloa with Oriol Junqueras and a single transport ticket for the whole country. There doesn’t seem to be enough medicine Faced with the considerable scale of the disease, socialists and voters expect more. The few who share discussions with Sánchez about the situation point to the irritated partners as those primarily interested in ensuring that the government does not fall, even as they seek not to be hurt in this cruel melee. And also the new opportunity that the planned regional elections would offer, where the PSOE does not govern or even aspire to improve, if those of the PP were to go to Vox again. A second season of episodes experienced after the municipal and regional elections of May 2023 and the unexpected advance of the general elections in July. SO It was a painful loss of territorial power for the PSOE, the one that Sánchez took advantage of to continue in Moncloa due to the fear of the advance of the extreme right.
Would this message work now, once we already know the reach of these governments of Extremadura or Aragon among the presidents of the PP and Vox partners? Few members of the PSOE dare to react at the moment. Discouragement is growing in the socialist headquarters miles from Madrid, even if also anxiety and impatience among those in the PP that so many mistakes led Feijóo and his people to make. The socialists may not know how they are going to get out of this, but in Genoa they still do not know how to continue supporting Pedro Sánchez so that he does not leave La Moncloa. until the end of the legislature or whenever he wishes.
About The Author
