The Valencian ex-Sánchez supporter who offers to bring the PP and PSOE to an agreement "in two afternoons"

BarcelonaThose who disagree with Pedro Sánchez are concentrated in the old guard of the party, such as Felipe González or some baron Uncomfortable figures like Emiliano García-Page from Castilla-La Mancha. But some were also close collaborators of the Spanish president himself, such as Jordi Sevilla (Valencia, 1956), the former Socialist Minister of Public Administration who was loyal to former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, with whom he served in the Council of Ministers. This week he offered to help forge a pact between the PP and the PSOE "in two afternoons," as he said in an interview. Wave ZeroBecause, in his opinion, "we have to think about turning the page on Pedro Sánchez," with whom he was very close at the beginning of his leadership of the party. In fact, he was also president of Red Eléctrica, the state-owned electricity company, between 2018 and 2020, a period marked by tensions with former Spanish Vice President Teresa Ribera. However, his greatest influence was in the 2016 negotiations, marked by the agreement with Ciudadanos, which proved unsuccessful.

Sevilla, an economist by profession, is known for pointing out "a couple of errors" in financial terminology one day in September 2003, when Zapatero was preparing to become president—specifically regarding the concepts of progressivity and regressivity in taxation. "What you need to know takes two afternoons," the then Socialist economic secretary quipped at an event. He later elaborated on this statement in books such as The economy in two afternoons. A concept she has now chosen to use again to discuss her potential future role as a matchmaker between the two major Spanish parties once Sánchez is no longer president. However, she was often criticized for her erratic economic management during the 2008 crisis, a fact that Sevilla herself acknowledged in retrospect. in interviews such as on the ARAIn that interview, he admitted they were aware of the housing bubble, but that "it's very difficult to be the one who takes away the wine in the middle of a party."

After his ministerial experience, Zapatero promoted him to the PSPV-PSOE to renew the party's structure, but it didn't go well and he ended up resigning in March 2008. Now he's rebelling against Zapatero's political heir and is even creating a socialist movement critical of Sánchez, Socialdemocra. "I was with him until he embraced Pablo Iglesias," he insists now, railing against the "populist positions" of the Spanish government. Although he maintains that he's still a member of the PSOE, he argues that he sees "disenchantment." And although he views the future without the current leader with hope, he declares that "the party no longer exists, it's Pedro Sánchez." After the June 23rd elections, he appeared even more "angry," also against the amnesty, which he linked to "Sánchez's Machiavellianism" and which he said, in his opinion, "should be agreed upon between the PP and PSOE or approved in a referendum." In any case, one issue on which he has continued to clash with the PP has been the role of ETA: a frequent speaker at talks and conferences, the former politician has insisted that "Feijóo and the PP are interested in ETA continuing to exist," as he stated last May to another former minister, as reported by journalist José Manuel García-Margal. Maribel Vilaplana.