Felipe González and Moreno Bonilla avoid getting into a hornet's nest

MadridAndalusia is the most populous autonomous community, the autonomy that distributes the most seats in Spanish elections and also the region that hosts the largest socialist federation. It is the historical stronghold of the PSOE, which governed the community uninterruptedly until 2019, when Juanma Moreno Bonilla's PP conquered the San Telmo Palace. Two legislatures later, the PSOE's outlook in the elections already called for May 17 is not to regain the government, on the contrary: polls assure Moreno Bonilla's victory and it seems the doubt is whether he maintains the absolute majority or if he depends on Vox. It is in this context that the minister and first vice-president, María Jesús Montero, makes the leap to Andalusia as a socialist candidate, with declining prospects, at historic lows. And it is with this horizon that this Thursday former president Felipe González has shared a stage in Seville with Juanma Moreno Bonilla, in a conversation moderated by the journalist Susanna Griso and organized by the Cajasol Foundation with the title: "Cayetana de Alba, a political duchess".

It was a cultural event, already announced before the call for elections on May 17, but from which no one escaped the symbolism: that in the pre-campaign González agrees to share a stage with Montero's great rival in the elections is not innocuous. And more so when in his last public appearance in Madrid he assured that he would not vote for Sánchez's PSOE because he no longer feels represented, but would vote blank.

The presentation made of the event by Cayetano Martínez de Irujo, the duchess's son, has been symptomatic, who has shown himself proud to bring together two such personalities. "For me, Felipe González is the best president of Spanish democracy and Moreno Bonilla the best president the Junta has had," he began, and even ventured to say that "Moreno Bonilla will be the Felipe González of our time".

Restraint

The union of the two characters on stage is already a headline and, for this reason, they have avoided getting into any hornet's nests that would complicate their lives. Griso was aware and has admitted on several occasions that they would try to "sidestep the political situation". Perhaps that is why, beyond the duchess and international politics, they have spoken about Catalonia, which usually unites an Andalusian socialist and an Andalusian popular party member. It has appeared on two occasions: to talk about the Procés, about which they said it was "painful" for the Duchess of Alba because it could represent the "beginning of the end of Spain", in the words of Moreno Bonilla, and to talk about trains.

Infrastructure has loomed over the conversation to point out that they do not work well —a jab at Óscar Puente?—, but Moreno Bonilla wanted to expressly thank González for his commitment to the Madrid-Seville AVE despite CiU's pressure to start in Barcelona. "It was a sense of state," he asserted. "I started here because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten here," replied the former Spanish president, who then surprised with a reference to Rodalies: "They are a disaster. They have every right to complain." "Now they will be handed over a mess," he predicted about the mixed company of the Generalitat with Renfe.

The "hidden vote"

From the PSOE they downplay the importance of the event and add that they do not comment on the agenda of former presidents. Leaders consulted add that what González does has no electoral effect on their bases because it is already taken for granted. What's more, they predict a comeback for Montero, as they consider that there may now be a "hidden vote" in favor of the socialists.

However, one must look at the history of the PSOE with perspective to grasp what this implies, taking into account what González was for the party and for the Andalusian federation. The clan of Andalusia — better known as the "tortilla clan— dominated the PSOE from the Transition onwards and led it to occupy political power in Spain. They were Felipe González, Alfonso Guerra, Luis Yáñez, Manuel Chaves... There has only been one moment when González has referred to that era: "In May '82 we swept Andalusia and in October we won in Spain. I don't know when it will happen again...".