Unity of action within the PSOE regarding the Ceuta crisis has a crack in a small town in the metropolitan belt of Seville. Espartinas, with 16,000 inhabitants and governed by the socialist Cristina Los Arcos, is called this Wednesday at noon at the doors of its town hall to express its solidarity and support to the population of the autonomous city.
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But Espartinas is not the only Andalusian town governed by the PSOE where they have chosen to ignore the guidelines of the party’s national leadership. The same has happened in the Huelva municipality of Moguer, whose town hall has called another gathering with the aim of “conveying all our support and solidarity to the people of Ceuta”.
They do so against the criteria of the federal PSOE and also against the guidelines distributed by the Andalusian party leadership, which has accused the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) of using institutions to “fuel tension around the humanitarian crisis” due to the gatherings it has organized throughout Spanish territory.
Although the public event in Espartinas will take place at noon and the FEMP has called for eight in the evening, the call by the mayor of Espartinas has stirred up dust inside and outside the PSOE and is interpreted as an act of rebellion by Los Arcos against a party discipline that she would have broken with her unilateral decision.
In fact, prominent socialist mayors, such as the one from Jaén (the only Andalusian capital in PSOE hands), Julio Millán, have harshly criticized in recent days the initiative of the two main municipal organizations, both led by PP mayors.
The mayor of this Sevillian municipality has not only promoted the gathering but has personally involved herself to the point of appearing in a video published on the official X account of the Town Hall in which, together with the Social Services councilor, Gema Gamir, they encourage the participation of the neighbors.
The council led by Los Arcos with an absolute majority has emphasized that it is “a call for social peace, for the union of everyone to solve a worrying situation,” while insisting that it has been organized “away from political noise, which does not seek confrontation but union, so necessary at this time”.
In that video, it is Gamir who addresses the inhabitants of Espartinas reminding them that she is born in Ceuta, a circumstance that has been used to explain the mayor’s action. Moreover, from the Sevillian PSOE they officially justify the call for the gathering in support of Ceuta precisely because of the Ceutan councilor.
Sources from the socialist leadership in Seville assured that this is not an act of rebellion or disobedience by the mayor of Espartinas and accepted the explanations given by Los Arcos. Furthermore, these sources stressed that the meeting in Espartinas is at noon and the one by the FEMP and the FAMP at eight in the evening, enough to show that the socialist mayor “has distanced herself” from the initiative of the PP mayors.
Therefore, these sources emphasized, there will be no consequences or measures against Cristina Los Arcos.
A different case is that of Moguer, whose mayor, Gustavo Cuéllar, has called the event in response to the explicit call of the FEMP and at the same time as the rest of the town halls, at eight in the evening.
As EL MUNDO published last week, the federal leadership of the PSOE has instructed its mayors and councilors not to support the September 2 gatherings called by the FEMP at the doors of all town halls to protest the central Government’s management regarding the situation in Ceuta after the massive arrival of 72,000 people illegally. According to the socialist executive, this action was decided by the PP “unilaterally, without agreement and violating the democratic functioning” of the organization that represents local entities.
Ferraz sent a circular to all party federations stating that the PP is trying to “manipulate this humanitarian crisis” as “an element of mobilization and confrontation” to “go against” the Government of Pedro Sánchez. For that reason, it asks its institutional and organic officials not to participate in the call.
However, through its social networks, the town hall of Espartinas, governed by the socialist Cristina Los Arcos, who is also vice president of the Provincial Council, has informed that it calls the gathering for this Wednesday, September 2, at 12:00 hours “to show our solidarity with the people of Ceuta“.
“It is a call for social peace, for the union of everyone to solve a worrying situation,” the same call indicates, adding that it has been organized “away from political noise, which does not seek confrontation but union, so necessary at this time”.
The Andalusian PSOE issued a statement last week demanding that the president of the FAMP, José María Bellido, PP mayor in Córdoba, retract a call “that does not have the consensus of municipalism and stop speaking on behalf of all Andalusian town halls”.
The PSOE of Andalusia denounced the “partisan use” of the FEMP by its president, María José García-Pelayo, “by imposing decisions and calls unilaterally without the support of political groups”.