Pablo R. Roces Madrid

Madrid

Updated Saturday, February 3, 2024-00:07

  • Politics Lobato shields himself in the PSOE of Madrid to maintain his own speech before Ferraz: "You should not trust yourself"

The general secretary of the PSOE of Madrid, Juan Lobato, is still adapting the party in the region to suit him, involved in meetings with the different groups to find out their opinion on political action first-hand and, above all, to try to reduce the doubts raised by the amnesty that Pedro Sánchez has agreed with the Catalan independentists. However, that is not the only task they face in the leadership team of the Madrid socialists.

Although sources close to Lobato place the party's organic issues on "a secondary level of action", the movements it is carrying out both in the party and in the parliamentary group show that there is interest in having greater control. One of these latest movements is the inclusion of

Mar Espinar

in the Directorate of the Socialist Parliamentary Group together with Lobato himself; the organization secretary and co-spokesperson,

Marta Bernardo

; the also co-spokesperson,

Jesús Celada

, and the head of the Economy and Finance area,

Fernando Fernández Lara

.

An appointment with two intentions: to give the party "a more aggressive profile", according to sources close to Lobato, as requested by some positions in the party to counteract "the more moderate profile" of the general secretary and, above all, "

to have more "control" over militancy in the city of Madrid,

the same sources highlight. "Mar knows perfectly well all the groups in the city and there he can provide us with management that we are not able to achieve right now," says a member of the Lobato team. "It never hurts to have someone who has done municipal and party work in these years," remarks a second, who highlights the six years that Espinar has served as a councilor, being in the last stages of his career a socialist spokesperson in the Madrid City Council. , deposed so that that space would be occupied by the former Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto.

Furthermore, the city of Madrid for the PSOE has the condition that it is one of the territories that are not related to the general secretary. At the head of the City of Madrid Group, which

today celebrates its Municipal Committee

, remains the former Government delegate and former director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, whose name was also considered to be a candidate for Mayor until Ferraz decided to change the course with the approval of Lobato. Hence, in part, the relationship between the two is not fluid.

There, according to the movements proposed by the Lobato team, the figure of Mar Espinar comes into play to have a greater presence in the capital, with a profile with some knowledge of the terrain. Furthermore, at that point,

the relationship between Mar Espinar and Mercedes González is "completely broken"

, confirm several sources close to both, despite the fact that it was "of maximum trust" during the years in which they shared a group at the Palacio de Cibeles. . In fact, both even shared a presence in the different commissions and, during Manuela Carmena's mandate, they coordinated their action as the main opponents on the left to the mayor in matters of Culture and Urban Planning.

A third factor has also entered into the capital's PSOE since last May, which is the bicephaly that occurs between the control of the group that depends on Mercedes González and that of the municipal group that falls entirely on Reyes Maroto. "

There is no harmony between the party and the group

," says a member of the formation. «Both want to mark their line and neither is going to give it up. At this moment it is evident that absolute control in the group belongs to Reyes, but Mercedes still has a hand in the party and is close to Pedro Sánchez," summarizes a second member of the socialists.

In the midst of this climate, the group is holding the Municipal Committee today at the Carril del Conde Cultural Center in the Hortaleza district to address the challenges that the socialists in the capital will have to face in the coming months and with an eye already on the elections of 2027. Hence, the intention they manage in the formation is to begin to outline the strategy that will lead to the next municipal elections to recover hegemony on the left, already lost in 2015 in favor of Más Madrid. Although the latest results gave growth to the PSOE in the City Council, it still remains the third political force.