In Extremadura it has been confirmed that The PSOE has entered a phase of collapse and the fear of Vox no longer mobilizes. It is no coincidence that Pedro Sánchez could not evaluate the results yesterday: that would have meant recognizing a failure that can no longer be attributed to the situation or external factors, but to his own strategy. Vox no longer acts as an electoral scarecrow. For years, the left has transformed its mere existence into a mobilizing resource. This mechanism is now exhausted. The PP does not emerge unscathed from the result either. He won easily and María Guardiola will continue to govern, but she has lost her hold on Santiago Abascal’s party. Far from neutralizing it, it will continue to depend on your votes. If Núñez Feijóo arrives in Moncloa, he will do so conditioned by a partner that he does not control.
The collapse of the PSOE is the central fact of these elections. This is not a temporary defeat nor attributable to the candidate alone. It is the consequence of a political and ideological option. In Extremadura, the timing of the closure of the Almaraz factory had a decisive impact. The Government’s anti-nuclear policy, presented as an ecological virtue, is seen for what it is: economic and social nonsense. The dismantling of a strategic, profitable and secure infrastructure without any real alternative was read as a direct attack on the territory.
The PSOE paid the price of a policy dictated by dogma and disconnected from reality. Added to this is a deeper ideological drift. The PSOE lost its federal identity to end up believing in the nationalist history of confederal Spain. It has given up being a party that supports the state to become an actor dependent on forces that challenge the common framework. This change does not expand its electoral base: it fragments and weakens it. The paradox is clear. Today, the PSOE could only win the elections in Catalonia. And even then, he doesn’t do it under his initials. This is the only territory where it resists, but at the cost of ceasing to be recognizable as a national socialist party.
While the PSOE is sinking, Podemos and Izquierda Unida are resurfacing. Not because they have expanded their social base, but because the socialist vacuum gives them political oxygen. The withdrawal of the PSOE further fragments the left and reactivates forces that seemed dead. All this has a name: sanchismo. Not as a personal label, but as a political logic. A logic based on survival, permanent tacticism and the substitution of the project for power. The result is that Vox no longer scares, the PP wins without emancipating itself from the far right and the PSOE sinks. Extremadura is no exception: it is a warning.
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