In a 41st Congress with no room for self-criticism, the PSOE has rallied around its leader – and his wife – after ousting hours earlier the territorial leader of the PSOE in Madrid, who was not sufficiently committed to the Sánchez cause. As former president Zapatero recalled on the first day of the Congress, in the PSOE they have ‘loyalty as a rule.’ So, there was applause and more applause, smiles and more smiles for Sánchez, his wife, and all his loyal followers. Absent, therefore, were Felipe González and Alfonso Guerra, the historic leaders of the PSOE, who are highly critical of the current government and the populist drift of the PSOE. Pedro Sánchez has called for a counteroffensive to regain local power in 2027, acknowledging that this is ‘the priority.’ However, at the same time, in a display of grandiloquence, he stated: ‘One of our challenges is the transformation of the global order. Either Spanish socialists lead the renewal of international institutions, or little of what we do at home will prosper.’
The Spanish press, even those committed to the cause of Sanchismo, is unanimous in its assessment of the 41st Congress:
El País speaks in its editorial of ‘A PSOE for Resistance’ and echoes the president’s victimhood: ‘They do not forgive us for governing better than they do.’
The newspaper El Mundo talks about ‘A defensive Congress with no future project. Without ideological or organic renewal, it has been a conclave to close ranks around Pedro Sánchez.’
The digital outlet El Español points out: ‘Sánchez announces that he wants to govern for seven more years so that the left can save humanity from all the right-wingers’ and that ‘Sánchez hides his miseries by pitting Spaniards against each other and exporting polarization.’
