Elda mayor Rubén Alfaro will be the coordinator of Diana Morant’s campaign as the sole candidate to lead PSPV. This is the result of the (informal and secret) meeting of the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities in Valencia yesterday with the frontrunners Carlos Fernández Bielsa and Alejandro Soler, who withdrew from the last race for general secretary. A meeting was held at the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz on Tuesday.
This appointment is important because Alfaro remained with Soler at the beginning of this congressional process. This is the first step towards the intended integration ahead of the extraordinary congress to be held in Benicàssim (Castellón) on 22, 23 and 24 March.
Alfaro’s name was considered as a possible Organizing Secretary for Morant during the initial phase of negotiations between the candidates, before those talks broke down and the three formalized their candidacies. In those days, Alfaro clearly placed himself in the project of the Alicante provincial leader, whom he sided with when he announced his intention to run for party leadership in Elche.
His appointment as campaign manager of the consensus candidacy is a gesture towards those who will compete in the primaries, the organization in Alicante and the young but experienced mayor Alfaro, who is president of the Valencian Federation. Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP) during the autonomous governments of the Left.
What was remarkable about yesterday’s meeting was not the results, but the way the meeting took place. The date took place at an undisclosed location in the city of Valencia, and all three allegedly did not know about each other until half an hour before they saw each other. At that time, a specific location was decided upon the arrival of the minister from Madrid. The purpose of stepping away from cameras and microphones would be to summarize the dialogue and remove it from external pressures.
The meeting did not represent major advances in the distribution of executive positions (which is the point that extended Tuesday’s meeting in Madrid), but it defined a working organization for the coming weeks ahead of the extraordinary congress. He also began building his campaign team.
Three socialist leaders reached an agreement in Madrid on Tuesday, mediated by the PSOE’s central leadership, that the provincial leaders of Valencia and Alicante would withdraw their candidacies and the general secretary would side with Morant.
However, the meeting, which lasted more than nine hours in the presence of PSOE Organizing Secretary Santos Cerdán, ran aground when it came to finalizing the distribution of the executive’s remaining positions. For now, it is only clear that the PSPV Organizing Secretary will be determined by the new leader, and the presidency and deputy general secretariat will belong to Soler and Bielsa.
The campaign, as stated yesterday, will focus on “listening to the voice of militancy and reaching the congress with a solid unity project that brings together all concerns.” In the statement made after the meeting, it was said: “It will mainly consist of intimacy events with a person-to-person approach.” The minister predicts an intense campaign even though there is no competition in the primaries and he is the only one to replace Ximo Puig.
Source: Informacion
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.