The new critical current created by PSOE militants and former high-ranking officials for the “reactivation” of the party demands that Pedro Sánchez not run again in the elections, contrary to what the Prime Minister has publicly stated. This is one of the issues included in the “package of political, organic, and democratic measures” proposed by this collective in a letter sent to socialist members, sympathizers, and voters, which EL MUNDO has accessed.
“It is not about denying his successes or erasing his period. It is about recognizing that his political cycle is exhausted and that the PSOE cannot go to elections converted into the personal defense of a leadership,” they argue in their letter about the immediate future of the head of the Executive. “A historic party cannot be reduced to the survival of a leader. Sánchez can provide one last important service to the PSOE: facilitate an orderly transition,” they add.
According to the letter’s promoters – drafted at a meeting held this Wednesday in Madrid, which this newspaper reported on – general elections should be called this year, “not as a concession to the right, but as an act of democratic hygiene.” The argument they put forward is that “when public trust deteriorates, the Government dedicates more energy to defending itself than to governing, and the legislature becomes trapped in a credibility crisis; the democratic thing to do is to return the word to the citizenry.” And they add: “Elections are not a threat; they are the constitutional mechanism to unblock a political crisis.”
“The PSOE is going through a period of internal upheaval, with episodes that have affected its public image and raise questions about control mechanisms, organizational culture, and exemplary conduct,” warn the promoters of this initiative in view of the accumulation of legal cases affecting the party they belong to. “Addressing it from a defensive urgency would be a mistake; it must be done through structural reflection and serious renewal,” they add.
And they emphasize: “We must not remain passive in the face of the crucial moment of widespread distrust we are experiencing. It is not acceptable to ignore everything. It is not acceptable to stand aside. It is not acceptable to take refuge in silence when democracy, politics, and democratic socialism itself are going through a credibility crisis that demands clear answers.”
To this end, ReActivaPSOE – the name given to the new critical current – also proposes that “the membership must regain its voice,” that there is a need to “debate freely, elect a new leadership, and define a new political project,” and that “it is not enough to adjust messages or make circumstantial assessments.” In this regard, they demand the convening of an extraordinary Federal Congress and that Sánchez also not run for re-election as general secretary of the socialists. “It will only be credible if it truly opens a new stage,” they emphasize.
Furthermore, they maintain that “hyper-leadership must be avoided” and “real weight must be returned” to the Federal Committee, the Autonomous Federal Council, and the territorial and sectoral bodies. As they state, “leadership must be exercised, shared, and controlled” and that “a strong PSOE is not one where everyone is silent, but one where there is debate, decisions are made, and accountability is rendered.”
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They also propose evaluating the functioning of primaries in the election of leaders to “perfect them and correct those practices that may distort the party’s political objectives” and that do not serve to “manufacture leaderships without counterweights or permanent plebiscitary campaigns.” Another proposal is for citizen participation in the selection of relevant institutional candidacies “with clear rules, prior registration, transparency, and guarantees against external manipulation.”
Likewise, they request the urgent approval of a Code of Political Responsibility that regulates “conflicts of interest, organic responsibilities, agenda transparency, audits, incompatibilities, whistleblower protection, and clear criteria for temporary removal in serious cases.” In this regard, they point out that “an ethical code without consequences is administrative literature.”
Avoid further “weakening”
These proposals, they clarify, “are not born against the PSOE,” but to prevent the party from “weakening further,” they emphasize in a collective promoted without a visible leader monopolizing the spotlight. The objective, they insist, is to prevent the right and the far-right from turning the “errors” the party has committed “into a total amendment to democratic socialism.”
“The radical right has managed to impose simple frameworks: security as a strong hand, immigration as a threat, the State as waste, politics as an elite privilege. The PSOE must build its own frameworks: security with rights, immigration with humanity and clear rules, the State as effective protection, politics as public service, and social democracy as reasonable hope,” they explain.
According to their letter, “ReActivaPSOE does not intend to be a closed line nor a personalistic project“: “It aims to be an open process, under construction, capable of incorporating diverse perspectives, debates, and contributions. Its objective is to activate internal conversation, participation spaces, territorial and sectoral listening, and exchange between different generations and sensibilities.”
This new critical current of the majority party in the Government represents an evolution of the one promoted by former minister Jordi Sevilla with the manifesto Socialdemocracia 21, published last January. It advocated a return to “self-critical debate” within the century-old formation to “recover political autonomy” which, they assure, “a majority of citizens” demand, and to “overcome the dead end” to which they argue “tension, the politics of opposing blocs, and the Sanchismo-anti-Sanchismo dynamic” encouraged by the Prime Minister have led.
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