In the PSOE they minimize the importance of the voices of former party leaders who have risen up publicly in recent days to oppose the possibility of an amnesty for those convicted of the illegal 1-O referendum, as the Catalan independence parties demand. change in its support for the re-election of the acting President of the Government. “The fundamental thing is that the leadership and its general secretary, Pedro Sánchez, know that they have the entire party behind them,” stressed the deputy general secretary of the party and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero.
As argued in a press conference after Monday’s meeting of the Federal Executive, in the current political context what it is about is “reading the electoral results” and seeing “how Spain expresses itself through something so sacred as their vows”. In this sense, the number two of the socialists has said that it is “obvious” that Ferraz’s core is trying to “give all the necessary strength” to its leader in the “complex” task of “articulating a majority of progress – without answering what concessions it is willing to make – and that “this is how most federations have expressed themselves when one of their leaders has made a statement.”
“The leadership of the party feels supported by the militants and by the group of men and women who want to build a Spain of progress, of the future and modern and that is what we are working on beyond the fact that there are dissonant voices or opinions the opposite,” Montero insisted. “Each one has expressed himself as he has considered and has deemed appropriate and the only thing I could tell him is that in this PSOE whoever moves does appear in the photo,” he added, retouching a phrase from his countryman Alfonso Guerra, which he popularized just the contrary idea as a warning against hypothetical internal dissidence.
The former vice president of the Government is precisely one of the former leaders who has joined in recent days the former senior officials critical of a possible amnesty for considering it “unconstitutional”, among whom is also Felipe González himself in addition to the former secretary General Joaquín Almunia and the former minister and former Basque leader Ramón Jaúregui. They have also been joined by the territorial leaders active in Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, and Aragón, Javier Lambán.
“This party is diverse, plural, but above all it has democratic mechanisms to ensure that the position its leadership maintains is the position supported by the party. When it comes time, when it is time to tell whether or not we have had agreements and under what terms , it will be time for the PSOE to speak out on this issue,” Montero concluded in reference to the consultation that, according to the party’s statutes, must be made to the militancy before a new coalition agreement can be signed. as already happened in 2019 after the pact with Unidas Podemos.