One year is a world in politics, everything can change, even more so when it comes to elections. Ximo Puig opened the 2023 calendar by looking at May as an opportunity to match his mentor Joan Lerma’s three terms as president of the Generalitat. But Puig consumed all his pages, opening the door for a former president, a former member of the Cortes, and his party, PSPV, to elect a new leader after 12 years of rule.
“I am taking one step back so that the project can take two steps forward,” said the socialist leader in the national committee, announcing the call for an extraordinary congress. The election of a new (or new) general secretary will mark the beginning of next year and the party’s stability in the rest of the legislature, given future election calls.
However, this is an issue that will happen in 2024, 2025, 2027 or when the time comes. In his 2023 assessment, Puig found that being the leader best known and most valued by Valencians served only a “meager improvement” in the election results. PSPV’s votes and seats increased, but the left did not show any increase following the slight decline in Compromís and the disappearance of Unides Podem from the Cortes.
The departure of the Palau de la Generalitat opened the thunder box from the inside. He remained at the head of the party, but critical voices increased. The fact that his circle nominated him as a minister and Pedro Sánchez closed the doors to him sent the message that Ferraz wanted renewal. And there are three homegrown names for him throughout the year.
There is Carlos Fernández Bielsa, the state secretary of Valencia and the mayor of Mislata, the socialist municipality with the most support in a town of more than 40,000 people in Spain. Alicante’s provincial leader and Congress MP Alejandro Soler has already formed an alliance with Bielsa to replace 23J’s autonomous leadership lists. And finally, there is Diana Morant, who was strengthened by Sánchez in 2023 by keeping her as Minister of Science and including the powers of the Universities. The future of the main opposition party in the Cortes will depend on one of these three.
It was not a quiet year for the other two legs that made up the now extinct Botànic. The biggest blow was received by the Unides Podem coalition formed by Podem and Esquerra Unida, which were excluded from the regional parliament. The purple ones are also in the midst of restructuring their regional leadership and moving away from Sumar at the state level. On this platform, the Valencian federation did not participate in the general elections.
Yes, Comprom did this. Valencians joined with Yolanda Díaz’s platform, and this relationship has been taking shape in recent months. And he will do the same in the future. They had previously seen how their representation in the Valencian assembly had diminished somewhat under the leadership of Joan Baldoví, who left the Congress after 12 years and was still trying to adapt to the Cortes’ style.
Added to this are the tensions experienced within the ecosocialist party itself following the departure of Més and Initiative and Mónica Oltra. Both parties will hold a congress and meeting at the beginning of the year, while Sumar will investigate its implementation in the Valencian Community. How to combine it will be an important issue in 2024.