Santos Cerdán has been PSOE Organizing Secretary since July 2021, but the last few months have elevated him to the position of one of the most active political actors on the national stage. He was sent to Brussels and Geneva to meet with the Junts on the appointment of Pedro Sánchez and played an important role in the agreement with Bildu for the Mayor of Pamplona in Navarra. This Friday, he lands in Valencia for more than just speaking at an event and having dinner with militants.
Cerdán will take part in bipartisan events that were canceled at the beginning of the month due to the first meeting he had to hold with Carles Puigdemont after the formation of the government. It will be in Valencia this Friday and in Alicante on Saturday night. But in the meantime, a more notable appointment looms on his agenda: Party sources say Cerdán is scheduled to attend the PSPV National Committee, which will meet on Saturday morning. It is assumed that he will not only be present, but also speak before the delegates.
It is unusual for the Federal Organizing Secretary to be present at such a forum. This gives it an extraordinary character. Even more than what was achieved in the days when the party’s general secretary, Ximo Puig, awaited his big decisions.
The joining of Ferraz by Pedro Sánchez’s right-hand man also confirms the role of the federal leadership in preparing the next organic movements. For some, it also has a neutralizing function against possible reactions.
The image that the National Committee (the highest body between the congresses) will thus present is that of Puig and Sánchez (in the body of their trusted men) united in the renewed turn in the PSPV. Ferraz, and thus Moncloa and the current leadership of the Valencian socialists, are together in deed and word before a seemingly important conclave of cardinals.
In this sense, all the focus now falls on Science Minister Diana Morant, the former mayor of Gandia, who will replace Puig and lead the Valencian federation after an extraordinary congress in the coming months. The intention of the two current directions (Valencian and Spanish) is to reach this point and leave it without civil wars.
The fact that Morant is close to both Sánchez and Puig is in his favor. However, it will face the obstacle that the combination of running a federation and handling a ministry is not common, although there is one existing example: Ángel Víctor Torres, general secretary of the Canary Islands socialists and minister of Regional Policy. But everything that will happen in the National Committee tomorrow will happen at the expense of the final decision of the former head of the Generalitat. His future (political and personal) is at stake. The option of becoming the Spanish representative at the OECD is the subject of much comment.