The irreconcilable differences between Pedro Sánchez and Emiliano García-Page have reached a new height after the Prime Minister downplayed in an interview on TVE the socialist baron’s criticisms of his pacts with the independence movement or actions such as the Ceuta crisis to the status of “minority” within the PSOE. “I don’t know why he attacks what may be minority opinions. After all, he lives kneeling to the bloodiest minorities in this country, which are the far-right independence supporters and the heirs of the ETA murderers,” the president of Castilla-La Mancha replied, referring to Junts and EH Bildu.
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The trigger for the new clash between the PSOE secretary general and the only territorial leader openly critical in public and not just in private, as other socialist leaders do, was the lack of relevance Sánchez gave to the positions of García-Page and other socialist references such as former president Felipe González. “What Felipe and Emiliano say is normal, this has been happening to me since 2014. I even think the headline would be if they ever came out supporting some government action, so I rule that out, because these are very minority, marginal positions within the organization,” the president dismissed on the program Mañaneros 360º broadcast by Televisión Española.
García-Page countered the president and emphasized that he “agrees with many government opinions,” before adding salt to the changes of opinion on sensitive issues such as the amnesty law, which Sánchez did not consider before the 2023 general elections. The demands of Carles Puigdemont, leader of Junts, in exchange for enabling his investiture led Sánchez months later to defend the pardon, making “a virtue out of necessity.” “I feel absolutely incapable of keeping up with so many changes of opinion. I may agree with the first opinion, but not with the last 150 that the government usually changes. The problem with some is the complete lack of credibility they have,” the regional president lashed out at an event in Guadalajara.
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The rift between the two grows with this harshness at the start of the last year of the legislature, which will end with general elections: Sánchez still does not reveal his plans, although a “silent majority” of the PSOE, according to one of its regional secretaries general, wants them before the municipal and regional elections next May. “How can he talk like that about those of us who may disagree or have a different opinion when the government really kneels before those who talk about ‘fucking Spain,’ as the Catalan far right just did? Frankly, I think he should consider the ability to disagree a bit more,” García-Page concluded.
Ferraz saved the last PSOE federal committee, at the end of June, with the critical voices of García-Page and the mayor of Palencia, Miriam Andrés, and the endorsement of Sánchez by the rest of the federations. The Castilla-La Mancha president demanded “to bring forward the elections,” as he has advocated for over a year, arguing that the anti-Sánchez punishment vote should not penalize regional and local candidates. “The situation has multiplied fivefold in terms of tension and problems, many unforeseen and undoubtedly very painful,” García-Page said, who in his closed-door speech also lamented the “lack of self-criticism.” “People hold us responsible for connivance with corruption,” he said, referring to the scandals of José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García, in prison, and the judicial cases of Santos Cerdán, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Leire Díez. “Those calling for elections are already those who did not want us to govern in 2016, nor a motion of no confidence in 2018, nor that we made pacts in 2023,” the head of government ruled out then, who today again had the penultimate disagreement with the Toledo baron.
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