The Seven Lives of Pedro Sanchez

Pedro Sanchez always knew how to take his chances, risk it all or nothing, but it took many years for him to be taken seriously. In some sectors they still don’t, five years after they arrived at La Moncloa. The day he started telling those around him about his plans for him Run for PSOE primaries, nearly 10 years ago, advised almost everyone against it. They took him crazy. A little-known deputy, who rebounded in 2013 because Cristina Narbona left her seat to go to the National Security Council, had no chance of reaching the top of a party that was then in its lowest echelon after the debacle of 2011 and the internecine war between Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba and Carmen Chacon, but he ruled for 24 years and knew that at some point he would do it again. Not even his closest friends saw him clearly.

Sanchez had no great godparents. The official presentation of his candidacy was not attended by anyone related to the party. around that time The top candidate was Susana Diazthe applicant v institution From the party was Eduardo Medina, and Paci Lopez was on the table as another option. Finally, Sánchez knew how to take advantage of the war between Medina and Díaz, who had decided not to run unless the congress by acclamation—similar to what Alberto Núñez Figo would later do in the Workers’ Party—and seized power in a completely unexpected way with the push of the most important federation in the PSOE, the Andalusian Civic Union, which put its de service in its hands.

Sanchez then explained that although he did not know, he had been in the shadows on the device for a long time and knew how to command. Diaz thought he could control her, but he would soon see that it wouldn’t be that way.

Sanchez has become strong in the secretariat, he ran for two elections in 2015 and 2016, he had bad results but he avoided a surprise Podemos, which was to become his tomb. He tried to install, in agreement with Ciudadanos at the same time he spoke with Podemos, he did everything, but he could not reach La Moncloa. Meanwhile, the men and women with the most power in his party worked to oust him and thus avoid a third electoral repeat, because the leader of the Socialist Workers Party refused to abstain in order to have Mariano Rajoy sworn in. to October 1, 2016. After a plot to overthrow him that was full of massive drama, in view of devastated fighters, supporters, and voters, Sanchez walked out the back door and thought, like everyone else, that his political career was over.

Again, no one gave him a penny when he decided to run again in the primary. The protagonists were the same. Susana Diaz – this time with the support of the city itself and almost the entire party leadership, including the two former presidents, Felipe Gonzalez and Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as well as all those who were friends of Sanchez and members of his leadership. Against all odds, as he repeated these days to fill the morale of his followers, won again. This time without the support of the Andalusian Federation or sponsors of any kind. Only the bases were angry at the leadership for expelling him and making Rajoy president with their abstention.

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For those who support Sánchez, who now form a large majority in the party after that epic comeback and that image of a brave man facing the full force of his party, the leader saved the PS from ending up like the French or Greek socialists, overtaken in insignificance by the left. Because with this image of the leader of the bases, he stopped Podemos and kept PSOE as a real alternative to PP, unlike what happens in France or Greece, and at some point also in Italy. For critics, the internal power Sánchez achieved by defeating the entire leadership in the primaries destroyed the party because his presidency ended all counter-powers.

Despite this domestic triumph, hardly anyone took Sanchez seriously. Even opinion polls put the Socialist Workers Party in fourth place. This stage is spoken of as an irrelevant stage. Yet again, against all odds, the SWP leader was encouraged in June 2018 to put forward a motion of censure that seemed lost.

Even he didn’t seem to have much faith in her, and he hesitated to move to win her over. But he succeeded, and reached La Moncloa without giving anyone much time to treat him. A week before the fight, he must be taken seriously, so that they do not pay attention to the opinion polls that gave him fourth place, and at the end of the following week he was president and began to form a government that had an influence on many because of its level.

Always on an adventure, and then with Ivan Redondo as strategist, Sanchez never gave anyone a break. Saving Aquarius, first budgets, sharp rise in minimum wage. The opposition could not keep up. Once they saw Colón’s photo, PP, Ciudadanos, Vox, Sánchez and Redondo realized they had a clear message and called for early elections. Everything is fast, always with the maximum level of risk. And it went well. The People’s Party fell to 66 seats, and Sánchez had several options for a majority. But there he again made a risky decision, which would be one of his worst mistakes, if not his worst: repeat the elections to try to govern alone. He did not succeed and was forced to accept the alliance. He lost seats – 10 between PSOE and Unidas Podemos – which made him more dependent on the ERC or even Bildu, which would tire him a lot and above all left him without a Plan B: Ciudadanos went from 57 to 10 seats and was no longer valid for an alternative majority, which would have been very useful in such a convulsive legislature, if only as a pressure mechanism.

epidemic

Yet Sanchez, who hardly admits mistakes and never looks back, kept moving and achieved many notable achievements: labor reform, pensions, housing law, euthanasia, memory, more minimum wage increases – up to 47% in total – and above all, he politically survived a ruthless epidemic in which he had to make drastic decisions not only at home, but also for the spending of up to 3.5 million residents. and thousands of companies. The government was convinced that things would improve a lot from then on and would have a second legislature without problems. Encouraged by the success in the Catalan elections, where Salvador Illa, the face of the government in the face of the pandemic, won La Moncloa.

But then came the elections in Madrid, the Andalusian elections, and finally the municipal and regional elections on May 28, with a massive loss of institutional power to the Socialist Party. They showed that the deterioration was serious. La Moncloa was in danger. He called for early elections, and against all odds the Whigs did not add an absolute majority. Pedro Sanchez has seven lives.

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