"The captain doesn't back down": Sánchez tries to "save the course" despite doubts and discouragement in the PSOE

MadridThe last PSOE federal committee meeting in Ferraz was the five-day meeting of reflection, with a unanimous message of support for the Spanish prime minister, who had left his continued mandate hanging in the balance. This Saturday's meeting is also a gathering of long faces and many doubts about the continued mandate of Pedro Sánchez, immersed in his worst moment of seven years in government due to the Cerdán scandal. "You chose me as the captain of the ship, and the captain doesn't back down when the sea is rough; he stays to weather the storm and steer the course," the head of the Spanish government pledged, to the dismay of a party waiting to see what the next audio recording will be that will implicate its leaders.

The federal committee began, however, with a novelty not linked to corruption, but to sexism. Eldiario.es has published the complaint of at least two female workers at the Moncloa Palace regarding "inappropriate sexual behavior" by Francisco Salazar, Secretary General of Institutional Coordination in the Cabinet of the President of the Spanish Government. Salazar was supposed to be one of the four members of the new reinforced organizational area in the PSOE, led by Valencian Rebeca Torró, but the proposal has not even reached the executive branch because the the affected person himself has resignedSalazar has also requested to be temporarily removed from his position at the Moncloa Palace, although both the PSOE and the executive have made it clear that the alleged victims have not filed any internal complaints.

Behind Sánchez, many members of the executive branch had a serious and even somewhat dejected demeanor, such as the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, one of those who shared the seven years of government with Salazar in the Moncloa Palace. "I appear with a broken heart, but my determination intact to overcome adversity," Sánchez began. And he ended with a similar message: "I look forward with desire and determination, more determination than ever (...) With our heads held high, proud of what we have achieved, with hope for what is to come," the Socialist general secretary urged his colleagues, in a speech clearly marked by an attempt to inject energy. "It's time for commitment, for resilience, for optimism (...) The betrayal we suffered is painful. The shadow of error cannot make us renounce responsibility," he insisted.

Corruption and the conversations between former minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García, discussing prostitutes, have greatly damaged the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) that Sánchez is trying to revive. "I want to apologize once again," he said. The latest episode involving Salazar is once again directed at the leader, who sees new people continually being singled out in his entourage. This Friday afternoon, he held a meeting with all the PSOE's equality officials to restore the party's feminist image, and the next day, he woke up to suspicions of sexual harassment by one of his mainstays in the Moncloa Palace. All of this raises growing doubts about whether Sánchez is the right person to revive a party that is experiencing a moment that contrasts sharply with that of the PP, euphoric at a congress where he has shelved internal discord and even jokes and self-parodying gags are allowed"They're holding the political funeral of a dead Sanchezism," recounted the new secretary general of the Conservatives, Miguel Tellado.

Page hints that Sánchez should give in.

The Spanish president will survive the federal committee and gain support for his proposals to strengthen the party against corruption—among other things, establishing double signatures in the organization department and random checks on leaders' assets—especially because in recent years he has managed to reduce internal opposition. Only the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García Page, has suggested that he should back down. "I'm here to hear solutions, and when I talk about solutions, I'm not talking about escape routes," he stated in statements to the media. Within the conclave, the leader from La Mancha demanded that Sánchez submit to a vote of confidence. "Either we regain the parliamentary confidence we have lost, and not in exchange for more obscene blackmail from the separatists, or we hold elections," he requested, according to sources close to him. The leader of Extremadura, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, also expressed that the pacts with the independence movement are "inexplicable."

The vast majority of regional leaders have joined forces with Sánchez, especially members of the Spanish government and Catalan President Salvador Illa, whose appointment of Montse Mínguez as PSOE spokesperson has culminated the PSC's symbiosis with the state party. "The secretary general is doing his job very well. When they attack Sánchez, they are attacking the entire party. He has my full recognition and admiration," Isla emphasized in his speech, in which he also defended the amnesty recently endorsed by the Constitutional Court. "We Aragonese Socialists have come to convey a voice of support and internal unity," emphasized Pilar Alegría, who leads a federation that was previously highly critical when it was chaired by Javier Lambán. "We have come to explicitly support the secretary general and president of the Spanish government," added Diana Morant, from Valencia. Navarrese María Chivite, who made her career alongside Cerdán, advocated for "unity" and defended the "honesty of the vast majority" of Socialist officials.

The new PSOE executive committee, endorsed by the federal committee with only one dissenting vote, is down to 43 members and a last-minute surprise: the continuation of Juanfran Serrano, Santos Cerdán's inseparable number two, as deputy in the organizational secretariat. He has convinced Sánchez not to pay the price for his former boss and remains on the executive committee as secretary of municipal policy.