It will be Gabilondo ”. End of the internal debate in Moncloa and in the PSOE, and the beginning of a new uphill race with which Pedro Sánchez will try to take over the jewel in the territorial crown, the presidency of the Community of Madrid, in the hands of the Popular Party for some time already 26 years.
Former Minister Ángel Gabilondo will once again participate as a socialist candidate in the regional elections in Madrid, called for next May 4 by the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, if the courts clear the legal mess unleashed after the filing of two motions of censure in against him, one of them from the PSOE itself.
And in Moncloa they already establish a parallel between the dispute for the White House between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, last November, and the struggle that Gabilondo and Ayuso can settle for the Puerta del Sol headquarters in less than two months.
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The Socialists see the PP candidate “tied” to the extreme right of Vox, after breaking his government pact with Citizens. And they equate their political strategy, designed by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, directly with Trumpism. “The PP has already lost the center, it is already far-right for all of Spain, and Madrid may lose because of its arrogance,” they say.
Gabilondo will try so that the third time is the charm. Signed as a great bet by Sánchez for the regional elections of 2015, the professor who was José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s Minister of Education, between 2009 and 2011, remained one breath away from being able to govern despite the electoral victory of Cristina Cifuentes.
In 2019 he already won the elections, with more than 27% of the votes, but then it was Isabel Díaz Ayuso – the popular candidate appointed by Pablo Casado – who prevented him from governing, thanks to the agreement that the PP signed with Cs and supported Vox .
The socialists highlight the moderation and pactism of Gabilondo in the face of the “very polarizing” profile of Ayuso
Gabilondo, who endured all these years as a socialist spokesman in the Assembly, was already on his way out. Sánchez had reserved the position of Ombudsman for him in the negotiations with the PP for the renewal of institutions, which was about to culminate successfully less than a month ago.
But that pact was blown up again. And the moderate and pactist profile of Gabilondo as a socialist spokesman was always overwhelmed by Ayuso’s impetus, to the point that his eclipsed opposition was highly criticized by sectors of the PSOE who demanded an alternative.
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Now, precisely, that political weakness attributed to Gabilondo is intended to be transformed into his great electoral strength against Ayuso. In this third attempt, precipitated and forced by the unforeseen electoral advance decided by Ayuso after the rupture of the government pact in Murcia between the PP and Cs, the Socialists assure that Gabilondo has a powerful possibility to finally achieve the presidency of the Community of Madrid.
They thus argue that Ayuso offers a “very polarizing” profile, and that he could only govern with the extreme right, so that the measured Gabilondo could collect a good part of the moderate vote, beyond the PSOE, and the electorate alarmed by a Vox irruption.
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The decision that Gabilondo is the electoral candidate again was made visible yesterday with his attendance at the meeting of the executive of the Socialist Party of Madrid led by the current government delegate in the community, José Manuel Franco. “We will respect what justice says, but the regional executive of Madrid has wanted to make clear our support, without fissures, to the figure and the person of Gabilondo, for the two possible scenarios. Of course, for the motion of censure, and in the event of elections on May 4, it is also completely clear that the regional executive unanimously and seamlessly supports the figure and person of Gabilondo as a candidate for the elections. “, ad.
“Gabilondo has earned it hard,” Franco stressed. “He is the ideal candidate to win again and, above all, he is the ideal candidate to govern the Community of Madrid, which needs a serious and decent government,” he warned. “Madrid needs a different government,” Gabilondo himself pointed out. “Now that I have this support, it is an extraordinary honor for me to be a candidate,” he admitted.
“The PP has already lost the center, it is far-right for all of Spain, and it may lose Madrid because of its arrogance,” they warn
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