“The Last Samurai”. That is how the spokesperson for the PNV, Maribel Vaquero, defined President Sánchez in the plenary session where he appeared to give explanations about the Ceuta crisis. “The Last Mohican,” calls the President of the Government Iván Redondo, his former Chief of Staff. In both cases, the President of the Government has entered September wearing the epic robes of heroes who perished, almost alone, in the name of their causes. In the first case, the defense of the caste of Japanese warriors that disappeared with the arrival of modernity. In the second, the survival of an Indian tribe devastated by the New World.
Although it is not, by far, the main reason to lose sleep, this August the President of the Government suffered his latest loss. The left of the PSOE has stood him up in the Ceuta crisis. Or rather, Izquierda Unida has decided to fill the immense void left by Sumar.
“We knew we couldn’t let this pass. That we couldn’t do what we did in 2021, when we swallowed the betrayal of the Sahara, with Podemos in the Council of Ministers. The Sahara was our cause, that of the entire left, and the PSOE betrayed it because it has always had a historical link with Morocco to serve its interests. Right now, the PSOE continues to defend that Morocco has no responsibility for what happened, so it is isolated in the Spanish political ecosystem. We could not allow the criticism of the Government for its poor management of the Ceuta crisis to be monopolized by the right.” Sources from IU explain the harsh intervention of their spokesperson, Enrique Santiago, in the President’s appearance this way.
The spokesperson for Comunes, Aina Vidal, left some reproaches to Sánchez at the podium, but the bulk of her intervention—much applauded by Gabriel Rufián—was to condemn the attitude of a Vox deputy who called to hunt the immigrants who have overwhelmed Ceuta. In IU they are also critical of the silence of the Sumar ministers, who, with the exception of Minister Sira Rego—who is from IU but is retiring—have barely opened their mouths about Morocco’s role in the late July avalanche.
NO BRAND, NO LEADER
They highlight, due to the high institutional responsibility it holds—the Second Vice Presidency of the Government—the silence of Yolanda Díaz in the face of a crisis that is a State matter. “Neither the President nor the Government have known how to react; from the first minute they should have gone to Ceuta, also the King who is the head of State. Ceuta needed the presence of the State and right now the State is the Government. The feeling of abandonment in the city is a problem of the highest magnitude that the Government has not been able to face,” they point out in the IU leadership.
The general coordinator, Antonio Maíllo, was the first to ask Pedro Sánchez to settle in Ceuta to resolve a crisis that, far from subsiding, worsens every day due to the critical situation the autonomous city is experiencing. IU has requested the Government to transfer the immigrants to the peninsula while their registration files are processed, but Sánchez does not want to hear anything about this demand.
IU tries to fill the political desert of the PSOE left, which at this moment is without a party, without a project, and without leadership. The negotiation between Sumar, Más Madrid, Izquierda Unida, and los Comunes continues, and the goal is to present their brand and leader at the end of September or early October.
Once Gabriel Rufián’s attempt to lead the confederal left brand seems to have failed, there is no clear name on the horizon. The sources consulted indicate that some people have been approached, such as Alberto Garzón and Ada Colau, without success. And also in the wings is the general secretary of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), Unai Sordo.
“The negotiations are going well, even better than when there were figures willing to be the sole protagonists, like Pablo Iglesias or Yolanda Díaz. We want to present ourselves to the citizens with a federal left program and a country project. We cannot leave the left lane to the PSOE, which is what Pedro Sánchez seeks, to keep our votes. We believe there is still space to which many people can join.”
Pedro Sánchez’s goal, to renew the progressive coalition government in the general elections, would only be possible, IU leaders assure, if there is a ballot to the left of the PSOE. In this regard, they warn: “The Ceuta crisis is having a great social impact. The cost of management will be greater for Pedro Sánchez than all previous ones, including corruption cases.”
The dysfunction of five ministers
The progressive coalition government PSOE-Sumar is unique in Europe for many reasons, and the situation it reaches in the last year of the legislature is one of them. There are five ministers and one vice president who were appointed based on their belonging to a political formation that currently no longer exists. The former leader of Sumar resigned from her party’s organizational responsibilities, but she did not consider leaving the Government, nor did anyone from the confederal space ask her to. On the contrary, leaders of almost all parties indicated that Díaz would continue to be the political reference of the PSOE left. With the second vice president managing her own future, the Sumar parties are beginning to realize the dysfunction of having five seats in the Council of Ministers and lacking effective political presence in institutions and media from which to build a new project.
Read more 21 arrested after a new stone attack on soldiers in Ceuta
