Sánchez finalizes new moves while the PSOE holds its breath
Still shaken, Pedro Sánchez gritted his teeth and applied an emergency tourniquet after learning last Thursday of the devastating report from the UCO (University of Cordoba) on Santos Cerdán, to prevent the enormous blow he received from sending the government and the PSOE directly to the morgue, with no option even to visit the infirmary.
The turnaround consisted of demanding Cerdán's resignation as secretary of the PSOE organization and his resignation as a member of Congress ; announcing a restructuring of the Ferraz executive committee at the federal committee to be held on July 5 in Seville; and commissioning an external audit to rule out any suspicion of irregular party financing.
"We will do what we have to do," they warn at Ferraz if Cerdán does not hand in his seat as deputy.Sánchez applied this first aid when the UCO bomb had just exploded and the enormous cloud of smoke it created had not yet dissipated. He was therefore unaware of the full extent of the damage inflicted on the government and the PSOE, which increases daily as the audio recordings of the alleged corruption plot involving Santos Cerdán, José Luis Ábalos, and Koldo García are revealed.
But Sánchez himself already seems aware that the emergency tourniquet is not enough to stem the bleeding and guarantee the survival of his mandate. The president is preparing new moves this weekend, according to Socialist sources, to address the crisis and try to safeguard a term that is approaching its midpoint. A reaction plan they anticipate is imminent, perhaps a matter of hours, they maintain.
Read also Pedro Sánchez apologizes for the Cerdán case but rules out early elections. Luis B. García
"We're looking at options," a minister close to Sánchez's core confirmed to La Vanguardia . But in this case, it will be the president who will announce it.
The only thing his team is certain about for now, despite the current uncertainty and the depth of the crisis, is what the Prime Minister has ruled out, at least for now. They assert that Sánchez is not considering early elections or calling an extraordinary PSOE congress, as some socialist sectors are demanding.
He himself ruled out rushing elections on Thursday. And, at the organizational level, the federal committee is scheduled to meet on July 5. Ferraz reminds us that this is the highest body between congresses.
The President of the Government and leader of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, during his appearance on Thursday
Daniel Gonzalez / EFEAnd Sánchez also rules out submitting to a vote of no confidence, according to his team. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, already stated on Friday that this option "is not on the table." The argument being put forward in the Moncloa remains the same: that the PP will present a vote of no confidence if Alberto Núñez Feijóo wants to certify what parliamentary support he has.
While the president finalizes his reaction plan, the PSOE is holding its breath. Sánchez's loyalists, who maintain that he continues to enjoy the support of the party members who returned him to the party leadership in 2017, assume that critical sectors lack the capacity to force an early election—an exclusive prerogative of the president—nor to call an extraordinary party congress to try to remove him. Furthermore, while he remains president of the government, no destabilizing movements are in sight.
Read also The crisis over the Cerdán case puts political parties on guard about Sánchez's next steps. Luis B. García
While waiting for Sánchez's actions, the Socialist ministers are trying to keep the flame alive. On Friday, it was the turn of Félix Bolaños and Óscar López, yesterday it was Diana Morant's turn—"We are not immune to corruption, but when we detect it, we eradicate it," she asserted—and today it was Vice President María Jesús Montero's turn.
Meanwhile, fears are growing that Cerdán, despite his assurances on Thursday, may ultimately decide not to hand in his seat as a deputy. The Socialist group spent all Friday waiting for him to do so, without success until the registration closed. And since Cerdán doesn't have an electronic signature pad, he won't be able to do so until tomorrow, if he decides to renounce his seat. "If not, we'll do what we have to do," they warn at Ferraz. They already had to do it with Ábalos.
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