The PSOE of Madrid paves the way for the landing of Óscar López while tension rises in Aragón | Spain

Pedro Sánchez inaugurated this Monday a new PSOE executive with the general, regional and municipal elections of 2027 between eyebrows and the first relevant organic movements after the party congress, held last weekend in Seville, in the Madrid federation with a purpose: to resolve this week the election of Óscar López as general secretary and, according to an unwritten rule, as the next candidate for the presidency of the Community of Madrid, after the resignation last week of Juan Lobato. It will be a lightning operation: the minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, appointed to the position in September after serving since July 2021 as the president’s chief of staff in La Moncloa, had until Saturday to present his candidacy as territorial leader. The calendar barely left him room for maneuver, since this Tuesday there is a Council of Ministers and a Government control session in the Senate and on Friday the 46th anniversary of the Constitution is celebrated. López will give a press conference in the Centro de Madrid capital group and next week he will hold an event that is as political as it is emotional in the Canillejas neighborhood, where he was born, grew up and lived for 24 years, with militants and neighbors, according to sources from his organization to EL PAÍS.

Throughout the day, several general secretaries asked the minister on social networks to appear in a synchronized action after the state leadership of the PSOE approved the primary calendar, the same one that Lobato had agreed with Ferraz. The requirement of having to present around 900 endorsements – the Madrid federation has around 15,000 members – makes it difficult for another candidate to apply who does not have strong organic support. One after another, a dozen leaders of groups with a position in the PSM launched themselves to pave the way for López’s landing. “We need a person with a lot of experience who knows how to confront the most powerful PP in all of Spain. We consider that Óscar is the ideal person. He is one of ours, a socialist from Madrid, and he is qualified for us to govern the Community of Madrid again,” summarizes Javier Rodríguez, national deputy, former mayor of Alcalá de Henares and general secretary of the largest group in the region.

The forecast is that there will be new groups of group leaders who will demonstrate in public in favor of the arrival of the minister in the next 48 hours. “Is an extraordinary candidate, seasoned, with political ability and a very interesting work capacity for Madrid,” shared Javier Ayala, mayor of Fuenlabrada and member of the federal executive. His inclusion in the national leadership in the Federal Congress of Seville, of which he was not a part, is a nod to the powerful mayors of the red belt from the south of Madrid and contributes to López’s landing, minimizing the internal noise of those in the PSM who consider him Ferraz’s candidate.

The Federal Congress has not only served as a starting point for the renewal of leadership in Madrid. The “revitalization” of the regional, provincial and municipal general secretaries will affect the entire PSOE ranks and will be completed in the summer. The socialists, who should have held the congress in October 2025 at the latest, thus gain a year. “We encourage the militancy to participate massively in all these processes,” invited the federal spokesperson, Esther Peña, re-elected to the position, after the two-hour meeting held by the socialist leadership. Sánchez transmitted the main message to them that the PP, unlike the PSOE, does not have any type of proposals for Spain and its opposition is reduced only to overthrowing the Executive. The president’s conclusion is that, in the absence of political opposition, what there is is a media and judicial opposition, according to several members of the executive. The best-known signing of the leadership, Pilar Bernabé, Government delegate in the Valencian Community and new head of Equality for the PSOE in place of Minister Ana Redondo, could not go to Ferraz. Bernabé returned to Valencia on Sunday to attend in person this Monday the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) activated by the dana. The Valencian federation has in mind that Bernabé will be the candidate for the Valencia City Council in the next municipal elections. The Minister of Science and Secretary General, Diana Morant, would be for the regional governments.

The PSPV-PSOE emerged from the Seville Congress as one of the most strengthened and cohesive federations. Aragon, on the other hand, is another story. Waiting to see if Minister Pilar Alegría takes the step, the current secretary general, Javier Lambán, who will not run for re-election, stressed that “never has a secretary general of Aragon been promoted from Madrid.” “They have always left from here,” he added after considering that it would be “bad practice to impose” his replacement from Ferraz. The Government spokesperson and Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports continues in the federal executive, which Manuela Berges, mayor of Pedrola (Zaragoza), has joined. Furthermore, the federal committee, the highest decision-making body between congresses, included Teresa Ladrero, mayor of Ejea de los Caballeros (the municipality of Lambán) and vice president of the Zaragoza Provincial Council. The institution is chaired by Juan Antonio Sánchez Quero, who is the general secretary of the province with the most militants and, therefore, will be key in Lambán’s succession. Uncertainty increased this Monday due to Ladrero’s decision to reject the position on the federal committee with which Ferraz intended to attract Sánchez Quero. “She has distanced herself, making it clear that she is loyal to her executive in Zaragoza, which is where she belongs,” applauded Lambán, who criticized some “imposed and non-negotiated” appointments while those in favor of building bridges with the sector critical of Ferraz They defended that “the integration” of different sensitivities was sought.

The former regional president did not attend Seville for health reasons and, therefore, did not lead the delegation of his federation. Neither did Pablo Zuloaga. The general secretary of Cantabria and former regional vice president strictly complied with Ferraz’s order to wait for the Federal Congress to pass before focusing on his organic process and was surprised by the push that the national deputy Pedro Casares wanted to give him in the election of the delegates to congress. The fight for leadership of the federation led to the first major internal battle between sanchistas. The President of the Government and the Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán, took note of the fratricidal confrontation, which generated enormous internal and media noise, and the response came on Saturday: Casares was no longer part of the federal executive and, unlike what which is always done in these cases, did not even enter the federal committee. The Government delegate in the community, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, was another of the debutantes of the national executive. Her election instantly sent a message that spread like wildfire in the Cantabrian PSOE: Zuloaga joined the party because of her.