Conesa, Sánchez’s personal friend who ended up fed up with the political “lynching” in Murcia

In the house of Alhama de Murcia of the socialist leader there are eight people, whom he considers more than close collaborators, his friends, and Diego Conesa is sincere. He tells them that in the second half of August, the decision to step aside began to “mature” with his family. and not stand for reelection as secretary general of the PSOE in the primaries of November 20.

In the farewell speech to this meeting that has kicked off a party crisis, Diego Conesa honestly explains that he is not one hundred percent to lead the PSOE. Three of the eight people who were this Sunday at his home in Alhama de Murcia, detail to EL ESPAÑOL that the general secretary explained that he felt emotionally and mentally “exhausted” because he is “having a hard time” with politics. One of the reasons is because his parliamentary activity has affected his personal life: “My family is suffering.”

Conesa lived her best political moment in May 2019 when the PP was imposed for a seat in the regional elections, ending 24 years of consecutive defeats of the PSOE against the Popular Party. Despite this, he did not step on the carpet of the San Esteban Palace: he remained in the opposition bench because Ciudadanos closed a government pact with the PP and from there began the troubles that have pushed this lawyer to release the reins of the PSOE.

“He is fed up with the political lynching he has suffered, receiving criticism and demands“, emphasize these three assistants to the farewell meeting organized by Conesa. The magnifying glass of Justice has had the general secretary of the PSOE on two occasions. And in both cases due to his time as mayor in the Alhama de Murcia City Council First, for allegedly not processing a traffic complaint against an IU mayor, and later, for an alleged urban crime in the conversion of an industrial building into a commercial area.

Another key situation that has influenced the decision of the socialist leader has been the failed motion of censure with Ciudadanos. The failure of this initiative in the Regional Assembly -in March of this year- it greatly wore down the institutional image that Diego Conesa had worked so hard on since the president, Pedro Sánchez, placed him in 2018 at the head of the Government Delegation. All the integers that he had won with the Murcian electorate he lost, since the Cemop spring barometer detected that the PSOE lost three seats in the Regional Assembly, going from 17 to 14, while the PP won six, from 16 to 22 , to just one of the majority.

Mole leaks

Basically Cemop’s barometer reflected that 59% of the Murcians consulted rejected the motion of censure with which PSOE and Cs wanted to evict the PP from the Palacio de San Esteban. The Popular Party not only came out strengthened in the polls, but also increased its control over the Regional Assembly after including in the autonomous government turnout deputies from Ciudadanos and one expelled from Vox. The result: Conesa and his party have since been the target of all groups, except for Unidos Podemos.

As if that weren’t enough, Diego Conesa got moles in the game that were dedicated to filter audios from internal organs of the regional executive that have harmed you politically.

During a Regional Committee in March an audio transcended where urged to “stretch the chewing gum of corruption“of the PP. In another Regional Committee in July, some recordings were leaked where the Secretary General of Murcia blamed the fiasco of the motion of censure on Félix Bolaños, current Minister of the Presidency, and that during the negotiation with Cs he was Secretary General. Conesa he had to issue a statement publicly apologizing and signed his sentence: politically it was burned and written off.

“He has spent four very intense, very hard and complicated years, where he has suffered many attacks that have exceeded certain red lines and his family was suffering,” underlines one of those attending this Sunday’s meeting, held at the Alhameña home of Diego Conesa . “In life you have to make decisions and he is honored to make one in which he puts the general interest before his own: believes that this is for the best under the circumstances, “adds another guest.

Communication strategy

During the meeting in question, the communication strategy that Diego Conesa would follow was agreed. First, a lightning trip to Madrid, which took place this Monday, to inform the Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán of his decision. After the visit to Ferraz, a letter was distributed among the militancy announcing his resignation to revalidate the general secretariat of the PSOE in Murcia. And finally, a press conference that will take place this Tuesday.

“This is not a decision of Madrid, in Ferraz they have found this Monday with Diego’s decision, just as it has happened to all the militants“At the moment, Conesa will be Secretary General until the celebration of the XVI Congress of the Socialist Party of the Region of Murcia, on December 4 and 5, in which the presence of his friend was announced: the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez .

Candidates for the primaries can be presented as of next month and the expectation is maximum because the rumors about the possible applications have already begun. Another of the questions that arouses the most interest among the militancy is to know if Diego Conesa will finish the legislature in the Regional Assembly or will deliver his minutes. Nobody in the Socialist Party is clear about what he will do: “He needs to be oxygenated.”

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