MARTA BELVER

Updated Saturday, April 6, 2024-02:22

  • Basque Country Bildu continues to rise and threatens the power of a PNV in decline with the PSOE as judge

Pedro Sánchez multiplied his presence in the campaign for the 2023

regional and municipal elections

with a daily rally on his agenda. The balance of that deployment was that the PSOE lost all the city councils of the cities in which it governed, through which its general secretary had passed, and did not achieve the objective of coming back in places like

Madrid

, where the realistic bar it had set was to recover the opposition leadership.

There were two exceptions to the general jinx:

Barcelona

and

Vitoria

. Both capitals were dyed red after the scrutiny of the polls after Jaume Collboni and

Maider Etxebarria

, in addition to the support of the PP, had that of En Comú Podem and PNV, respectively, for their investitures as socialist mayors against the Junts and EH Bildu candidates.

Under this electoral prism, the conclusion is that Sánchez did not provoke rejection only among voters in towns in

Catalonia

and the

Basque Country

, the two regions that face their regional elections in the coming weeks. This Saturday, the President of the Government will support his candidate for

Lehendakari

, Eneko Andueza, precisely in Vitoria, and will do the same later with that of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, wielding the endorsement of his presence in two of the five autonomies in which 23-J improved its list of deputies and allowed it to compensate for its decline in other territories such as

Andalusia

, where it lost four seats.

After the elections in May last year, the socialists stopped governing in

Seville

,

Valencia

- where they were a minority partner in a coalition with Compromís -,

Valladolid

,

Gijón

,

Jerez de la Frontera

,

Alcalá de Henares

,

Ibiza

and

Puertollano

. Particularly significant is the case of this municipality of Ciudad Real, which like the rest of those mentioned was one of the stops of the party leader's caravan, since it had not had councilors with other acronyms since the beginning of democracy.

In the recent Galician elections, Sánchez also participated in rallies in

Orense

, the Pontevedra town of

Vigo

and

La Coruña

. In these three provinces the PSOE collapsed and was only saved from the debacle in

Lugo

, the place of origin of its candidate, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, where the president of the Government had also participated in an event although prior to the start of the campaign itself. bliss.

However, party sources consulted by this newspaper frame this defeat in the strategy of making their candidate to preside over the Xunta "look like the obtainer in Madrid" of funds from the central government, with the "caciquil" implication that entails. "If you do not have a political project, which is the core, and you are not perceived as an alternative,

Lady Gaga

could have already gone

, the result would have been the same," summarizes the growth of the BNG at its expense, but insufficient to achieve a majority of the left that would unseat the PP.

Faced with the new electoral events, the socialists' headquarters believe that they are starting with better expectations. In the Basque Country, whose campaign began on Thursday, they aspire to continue being the key to access to the Lehendakaritza, where they are currently the minority partner of the PNV, and both publicly and privately their leaders state that they completely rule out the scenario of support EH Bildu even if it was the most voted list on

April 21

.

Optimism in Ferraz

The PSOE are even more optimistic regarding the Catalan elections that Illa already won in 2021. Their goal for

May 12

is that the sum of the pro-independence forces does not reach the absolute majority like three years ago, when Junts supported the investiture. of Pere Aragonès (ERC) and the formation of a two-tone Government that ended up being blown up 16 months later.

"The president is going to put a lot of effort into the campaign, although Salva is on his own," say sources from Ferraz's leadership, where they consider that the electoral advance "has been good for him." In fact, they point out that the polls are "undervaluing" the PSC candidate, who they highlight has been preparing for "a long time" for this moment, having combined his work as head of the opposition in the Parliament with "touring the territory" town by country. town and that it is "taking a run".

But before the Catalan elections will be the Basque ones, in which the party leadership particularly values ​​Andueza's "very tough speech on terrorism." Sánchez will be with him this Saturday at a rally in Vitoria, the only one that has been confirmed at the moment. The choice of the capital of Álava for the rally that Sánchez will share with him this Saturday is not coincidental: this is the province that is considered key to determining which party wins the elections and the only one in which, according to the survey carried out by

Sigma Dos

For

EL MUNDO,

the PP would surpass the PSE in seats.