Sánchez will focus the shot on Feijóo and not on Vox and promises the PSOE to step on more territory

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The blow has been very hard. Massive. Just look at the serious faces of the members of the federal executive of the PSOE this Monday. The colossal defeat in Andalusia against Juanma Moreno’s PP —19 point lead, 28 seats above, a resounding absolute majority—made a great dent in the spirit of Pedro Sánchez and his team. It could not be otherwise. Nothing like this had ever happened in a territory in which he was able to maintain his unappealable hegemony for four decades. The president, his people admitted, was touched. But, in the first reading of the party’s poor results in its hitherto solid stronghold, this Monday, it advanced to the top two proposals and commitments at the same time, according to different members of the management to this newspaper. On the one hand, it was necessary to focus the shot more towards Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s PP, and less towards Vox. On the other, that it will move more intensively to the territories to sell management and “listen“Your demands.

The hangover meeting of 19-J lasted for almost three hours and there were twenty interventions. There were no “critical voices”, as the spokesman, Felipe Sicilia, later highlighted to the media, although there was “continuous calls to reflect“why the PSOE has not managed to mobilize its electorate —the party lost 127,000 votes, almost four points and three seats compared to the 2018 regional elections—.

The Socialists have influenced the strategy of fear of Vox since 2019, but it has been found that “it has not worked”. The one who has punctured the ultras now has been the PP

The blow was also blamed on the division on his left, and he closed ranks with Juan Espadas, the candidate for the Junta and leader of the Andalusian federation for a little less than a year, insufficient time, Sicilia recalled, to “consolidate” his Project. At all times, the leader stressed that Andalusia’s data cannot be “extrapolated” to other communities and at the national level, because citizens increasingly discriminate against his vote and it is a “disrespect“Make them “believe” that now it was time to judge the central government. There is no, then, he reiterated, “cycle change“, the one that boasts the PP.

But behind closed doors, the messages were also somewhat more direct and raw. To begin with, it was recognized that the strategy regarding Vox “it hasn’t worked“, they summarized in Ferraz. The leadership has been fueling fear of the extreme right as an electoral claim since 2019. In those first general elections it did help to mobilize, but the same did not happen in the subsequent repetition of November and that idea did not permeate even in the regional of Madrid, nor in those of Castilla y León, nor in Andalusia. What is more, on 19-J who punctured the Vox balloon was Moreno, by concentrating the useful vote of the right. “Come on, fear of Vox does mobilize, but in this case in favor of the PP,” values ​​a Ferraz official.

“Whoever plays to confuse is the PP”

“Pedro conveyed that we should focus not only on explaining what we do, but also on criticize the PP with substanceto Vox as well, but above all to the PP, which is our rival,” says a member of the federal leadership. In the leader’s direct team they indicate that it is a decision “strategic“, nuclear, which will have to be strengthened from now on. The president asked his executive to place more emphasis on the “contradictions” and “blunders” that Feijóo makes, such as his slip with the risk premium on June 7 in the Senate. He demanded that he denounce the “double standards” of the popular, who “benefit” from the funds that the Executive transfers to the autonomies and then “torpedoes their work.” “You have to continue denouncing the barbarities that Vox says and does. But that is compatible with doing good opposition to the PP“, says a leader. “It is not so much about Vox, but about Vox’s policies, and the one who plays to confuse is the PP”, completes another colleague.

Already with his new team, Sánchez left Moncloa. He now he will delve. “He will work for him: people want to be heard, there are too many people having a bad time,” says a leader

But Sánchez also promised to move more to communities, to get out of his Moncloa bubble. His direct team in the Executive has already devised that plan and put it into practice, but the will is to increase the presence outside Madrid to get closer to citizens. “Will go more to the territories, be more in contact with the sectors. A listening task that allows collecting concerns and transferring solutions”, they collect from the leadership. A policy, emphasizes another heavyweight of the management, “more sticky to the territories”, that deploy not only him, but also the executive, the Government and the barons. “It will work for him now, I’m sure,” values ​​a member of the management. People want to be heard, there are too many people having a bad time.” Sánchez, therefore, wants to show that he does attend to the problems of citizens, his concerns, as Sicilia also warned journalists in his appearance in Ferraz.

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The analysis of the setback of 19-J will continue in the coming days and weeks. And especially in the circles closest to Sánchez. The regional leaders ask for a “very deep reflection” —in the words of the Aragonese president, Javier Lambán—, a shock, take note. A change of government, express some, or a change of strategy or communication, sentence others, or changes at the helm of the PSOE. Something.

From Moncloa a “impulse” is promised, without specifying more. Nor when will it be done. But it won’t be imminent, because the first challenge for the Executive is the NATO summit next week and the debate on the state of the nation, in July. Everything points to the correction of the trajectory materializing in September, with the new political course. But again, everything depends on a single person: Sánchez. No one else’s. What is evidence is that no one rules out categorically that there may be adjustments in the leader’s trusted team. And it is that no election happens in vain. And maybe not these Andalusians from 19-J either.



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