• Crisis: The political coup with Venezuela reveals tensions in the Government
  • Opposition: The PP calls for the cessation of Ábalos for "betraying" Spain and "the principles of democracy"
  • Government: Pedro Sánchez reinforces Iván Redondo and orders him to "sell" the achievements of the Government

The misgivings, distrust and disorientation in the socialist ranks reappear. The arguments imposed from La Moncloa to justify the 180 degree turns in Pedro Sánchez's decisions do not convince and the legislature has just begun. In just two weeks, the Government has dynamited the discourse with which socialism went to the polls: there is confrontation with the Judiciary , arms open to independence, bewildered by the attitude towards Venezuela, negotiated with Bildu and stumbled with transparency and the media. The murmur of discontent begins to run in the PSOE: "Let's go from stropic to stropic."

None of the names put by finger by Pedro Sánchez lends itself to criticism, but things are different among those who have won their position from below and with the vote of the citizens because they must respond to them. The Spaniards contemplate the turn and wonder what happens. "And what happens," explains a senior socialist leader, "is what it seems and is very worrying."

It is, mainly, because those who opted for the PSOE at the polls did so by betting on political commitments that in just two weeks there is no trace. From the "never" and the "never" with which Sánchez dispatched in campaign the possibility of an agreement with populists and independentistas, it has been placed as pillars on which the legislature is based. And in the socialism of old wedge is not understood.

Among the sources consulted there are those who hope that this strategy will change once Sanchez achieves his main objective: to approve the Budgets . "In six months maybe everything is the other way around," reflects a leader with many triennia behind his back. In his opinion, Sanchez and his right hand, Iván Redondo, have decided to "put the direct", undertake "all the destruction of a stroke", to get them to support the accounts and with the minimum two years they provide, return To a normal path. It gives the impression, he points out, that in the next six months "he will make his coat a word to approve the Budgets and then we'll see."

Those who contemplate this theory warn, however, that citizens "have memory." «They are not secondary characters of House of Cards , the series that excites the Moncloa». It is all too abrupt, too obvious, too contradictory for voters to assume without further explanation than the easy resource of attributing everything to "the rights." "The mud is posing in the background but in the end there is more mud than water," they warn, recalling the use and abuse that the Rajoy Government made of "the inheritance received."

The negotiation with the independence movement and the last "gesture" - proposing the review of the crime of sedition to reduce the penalties that it entails - added to the decision to hold a meeting with Quim Torra despite his disqualification ratified by the Supreme Court, has raised blisters among those who maintain that socialism is much more than pedrismo .

These sources believe that between Sánchez and Junqueras' team "there are many more things discussed than are known." They believe that the intention is to drive the situation to the point where it is JxCat who "dynamite the bilateral table." In this way, they argue, both Sánchez and ERC will remain as leaders of the dialogue and the blame will fall on the intransigence and the closure of Torra and Puigdemont.

Short-term strategy

The strategy, they add, "has many risks, tense too much and offers no guarantees." He falls fully into "short-termism." It responds thus to the model imposed by Iván Redondo. The almighty chief of Cabinet of Sanchez is blamed for many faults. Among them is to open a firewall between Sánchez and the party.

"Spain," notes an old-school socialist, "now faces a historic moment; Sánchez favors the most serious turn since the Transition and does so without picking up the phone to talk to anyone ». Everything stays in La Moncloa, in a super-restricted circle in which the maximum prevailing is to act "at a given week." The organs of the PSOE have no role.

The president places in his main advisor all the confidence, but in the party they do not see the brightness of the supposed successes attributed to him. Moreover, some believe that failures have been more than sounded.

«The repetition of the elections was promoted because that way we would get the Spaniards to speak more clearly in support of the PSOE; we were assured that we would reach 150 seats and that we could govern without depending on anyone. What was the result? We descended from 123 to 120 deputies and lost 700,000 votes and, in addition, we depend on everyone: from United We can, from independentists, from Bildu and even from parties that only have one deputy. It is not possible to speak precisely of success ”, lament the sources that are missing“ more country vision, future and common project ”.

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  • PSOE
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Bildu
  • Ivan Round
  • Spain
  • Venezuela
  • United We Can
  • Supreme Court
  • Quim Torra
  • ERC
  • Mariano Rajoy

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