The PSOE quells the Lobato rebellion before the Federal Congress: this was its last 72 hours

Juan Lobato made the decision to resign as general secretary of the Madrid PSOE on Tuesday night. State Treasury Technician, if he knows anything, it is figures, and the numbers had stopped proving him right. “He had practically no support left in the party,” summarize his trusted sources. The shock of his most faithful organic supports and the pressure that came to him from many of the general secretaries of key groups in his victory in the 2021 primaries, in which he obtained 61% support, a discreet percentage despite being the candidate official party, that is, the one indicated by Ferraz, undermined his resistance. Even so, Lobato delayed the decision and did not formally give up until 2:21 p.m. in a message to the press that he has always attended to without making distinctions. Moncloa, Ferraz and the federation that for many in the party continues to be the feared FSM or PSM no matter how much it changes its name, breathed a sigh of relief after 72 hours of vertigo unprecedented even for the Madrid socialists.

On Monday morning, Lobato is not aware of the seriousness of the crisis that broke out the night before. That day, around 8:00 p.m., he calls Pilar Sánchez Acera to tell her that Abc is going to publish information about the WhatsApp messages that they had maintained eight months before about the case that affects Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s partner, and that Sánchez Acera tells him he had obtained from the media, before the control session on the 14th. March at the Madrid Assembly. What Lobato doesn’t tell him is that that afternoon he met two journalists from the media. It also does not go into details of the content of the information. Less than two hours later, the newspaper publishes on its front page that “Moncloa leaked the secret document about Ayuso’s boyfriend and tried to implicate Lobato.” The PSOE finds out that Lobato went to a notary in November to record a conversation with a person who is also not just anyone: Sánchez Acera is number three in the regional directorate, she is someone who helps him week after week to prepare his interventions in the regional Parliament and had also been until September the chief of staff in La Moncloa of Óscar López, director of cabinet of Pedro Sánchez until his appointment as minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service. Without intending to, Lobato has activated “a nuclear bomb” that will end up taking him down and raising doubts about whether the Government had obtained the information through the Prosecutor’s Office.

The leader of the Madrid PSOE issues a statement at 10:21 p.m. on Sunday in which he maintains that he certified before a notary that neither the Madrid socialists nor Moncloa had received any information from the Prosecutor’s Office whatsoever regarding Ayuso’s boyfriend. But the damage has already been done. Lobato begins a tour of six media outlets on Monday morning. A carousel that takes you through Cope, Onda Cero, Antena 3, Cuatro, La Sexta and TVE. The PSOE attends stupefied. Nobody understands anything. His explanations have the opposite effect while unease is already spreading in his team. Not even those closest to him knew that he had gone to the notary.

Even so, Lobato wants to continue holding the meetings he had planned for Wednesday and Thursday, before traveling to Seville on Friday to the 41st Federal Congress of the PSOE at the head of the Madrid delegation. But everything changes around one thirty: the Supreme Court has just summoned him as a witness on Friday at ten in the morning in the case of the leak of Ayuso’s partner’s emails. That’s where it starts to break. He decides to go home, where he secludes himself. It’s just after three in the afternoon. And he barely answers calls, only a handful of cadres he trusts. “No one picked up the phone” was the tone. Lobato takes refuge in his family. He takes advantage and places the Christmas tree in his single-family home in Soto del Real, where in 2015 he became the first socialist mayor since Eugenio Candelas, who was shot in the Civil War in 1939. Meanwhile, the unrest in Madrid provokes a reaction in chain in which important leaders of the federation end up asking for Lobato’s resignation that night when they understand that “he has committed an act of disloyalty” and “he has betrayed trust.” of a companion.”

The situation gets even more tangled on Tuesday. It is 8:06 and Lobato calls the press at the Madrid Assembly at 9:30. He notifies around twenty people to come to his statement. Those summoned convey to other party colleagues that they do not know what they are going for. They are not certain that Lobato is going to resign, although that is the general feeling. And wrong. “Be careful, what’s going to happen next,” a heavyweight in the federation warns his trusted people. The urgency of the call and the traffic mean that not many officials show up, just a handful to Lobato’s very brief appearance without questions, which begins about 20 minutes late. Marta Bernardo, the Secretary of Organization, arrives when it has already finished. Other leaders put on a profile and do not show up at all. Around noon, Lobato goes to the notary’s office to claim the document that he has to deliver to the Supreme Court. He does it alone, even though at first a member of his team was going to accompany him.

In the afternoon, Lobato dedicates himself to answering and receiving calls from deputies and general secretaries of groups at his home. The conversations are going along the same lines: practically everyone tells him that he has to resign before Friday. That he cannot go to the Supreme Court as general secretary of the PSOE of Madrid because it would be the first time that this has happened. They ask him not to go to Seville either. There are those who beg him to step aside to maintain certain political baggage and not drag the party down with him.

On Wednesday, those who manage to speak with him see him so affected that they doubt he will make it to Friday as general secretary. His suspicions are confirmed after two in the afternoon. The agony ends without Lobato having spoken all week “neither with Ferraz nor with La Moncloa,” according to those around him. Shortly after resigning in a statement to the press, he said goodbye to his executive with the following message: “Dear colleagues from the CER [Comisión Ejecutiva Regional]Today my SG stage ends [Secretario General] from Madrid. And therefore that of the entire CER. I want to thank you for the work you have done and the effort to put the party back on its feet after going through its worst moment after the 2021 election results. Thank you for your opinions, criteria and initiatives. I encourage you to continue with your commitment and work in this new stage. A hug, Juan.” It is the first message in the regional management chat since Sunday at 11:36 p.m., when Bernardo sent the statement that a few minutes before had been sent to the media. “It’s like a broadcast list, we can’t participate in it,” explains a member of the executive. “Fortunately,” he adds sarcastically.

Lobato’s step back resolves another bizarre situation. This Wednesday a participatory assembly with the Tetuán militancy was called at 6:30 p.m. It had closed last week and the group was on edge. Nobody confirmed that it would be held after the crisis that opened over the weekend. The symbolism was enormous and would have been interpreted as another direct snub to Pedro Sánchez, who took his first steps as a PSOE activist precisely in that district of Madrid.

Finally, the PSOE of Madrid, the federation with a reputation for being the most turbulent of all socialism, will go to Seville led by a manager. It will be chaired by Isaura Leal, president of the federation. It’s not the first time. He already did it in 2021. Member of the Congressional Board and loyal to Sánchez, he will lead the delegation of the Madrid socialists to the 41st Federal Congress. The dinner that the delegation was going to celebrate on Friday in Seville continues. A large group of 89 delegates (the largest federation after Andalusia, with 268, and the Valencian Community, with 115) had canceled their attendance because they did not want to coincide with Lobato. Although he won’t go, everyone will talk about him in the circles.