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Madrid (EFE) vast majority of its territorial power in the regional and municipal elections in May.
Sánchez himself announced the electoral advancement one day after the regional and municipal elections on May 28, making himself directly responsible for the results of the PSOE, which lost six of the nine regional governments it led and most of the provincial capitals it led, including Seville.
“I assume the results firsthand and I believe it is necessary to give an answer and submit our democratic mandate to the popular will,” he said when reporting his decision, which caught most members of his party by surprise.
The 23J elections will be key for the future of the PSOE, but above all for the future of Sánchez for being the candidate for re-election and for having raised this ordeal, which demonstrates his ability to adapt and his ability as a political strategist.
Sánchez melee directly with Feijóo
Sánchez conceives these elections as a direct melee with Feijóo in which he assures that there are only two possible options: either a “progressive” government of PSOE and the Sumar platform, led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz, or an “ultra-right” one of PP and Vox.
For this reason, he strives to underline the need to “consolidate the progress” of his government in the face of the “regression” that he attributes to the bloc of the right, while trying to dismantle the cold and authoritarian image that his adversaries paint of him through of “sanchismo”.
Sánchez himself is conveying these messages in a highly publicized pre-campaign focused on him, with a large presence on television sets and very few rallies, as the PSOE plans to continue doing throughout the campaign.
The question before 23J is not only if Sánchez will be elected president of the Government again, something that seems complicated by the polls, which predict a clear majority of PP and Vox, but also if he will continue to be the leader of the PSOE.
For the moment, no socialist has expressly requested a new leadership in the PSOE, not even among the veterans who denounce the drift that the party has taken since the arrival of Sánchez, mainly criticizing the government pact with United We Can and the parliamentary agreements with EH Bildu and ERC.
And Sánchez himself has avoided answering about his possible replacement in the game when asked about it recently in some interviews.
The territorial loss in the 28M elections
But this matter hangs over the PSOE, especially after the regional and municipal elections in May, in which the Socialists suffered especially the loss of territorial power after coming in second place after the PP, although a short distance behind, with 28.11 percent support compared to 31.53 percent.
The May elections also confirmed the debacle of the PSOE in Andalusia, a traditional socialist stronghold where the PP won by an absolute majority in the regional elections held in that community in June 2022 and where a year later the formation led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo consolidated its hegemony in the municipal
Precisely last summer, shortly after the Andalusian regional elections, Sánchez undertook a profound renewal of positions in the PSOE, also taking advantage of the resignation of the socialist deputy general secretary, Adriana Lastra, who alleged personal reasons for a risky pregnancy.
On the other hand, there has been no remodeling in the party or in the socialist part of the Government after the electoral failure of the PSOE in the regional and municipal elections in May.
When announcing the advancement of the general elections to July 23, Sánchez focused on this new electoral phase, avoiding internal criticism and the possibility that the PSOE would suffer greater wear if the elections had been held in December.
For the moment, the PSOE has chosen to put aside its wounds and show unity before 23J, as demonstrated in the Federal Committee on June 10 in Madrid, in which the electoral lists were ratified unanimously despite the discomfort that the day before the federations of Castilla-La Mancha, Aragon, Castilla y León and the Valencian Community had manifested.