Alejandro Soler did not improvise. In the days spent at Fitur, which felt almost like a compact socialist congress, he tied up final details and summoned his closest allies to Elx for a crucial moment. On one side there were negotiations; on the other, a strategy taking shape around the candidacy that was about to be announced.
Rumors had spread through Thursday that the Alicante secretary general might act, yet he kept quiet. He neither confirmed nor denied anything. In the afternoon, he chose a decisive move: he dialed the PSOE’s number three, a trusted friend, Santos Cerdán, and conveyed what his people already knew. The next afternoon, the candidacy was announced, with Soler taking the lead of PSPV. Soon after, Pedro Sánchez was informed, and shortly thereafter Ferraz passed the news to Minister Diana Morant. The expected scenario began to unfold.
The former mayor of Gandia moved quickly to assemble a team capable of confronting the polls. With a history of limited organic activity, he preferred the familiar and the trusted. Vicent Mascarell, a longtime confidant from Safor who served as Organizing Secretary of the State of Valencia under Bielsa’s third candidate, became Soler’s right hand in the mission to win the secretary general. The outreach spanned from rising stars to lesser-known figures, reaching the influential “barons” in key municipalities who could influence transfers of support.
Soler dined with some of his most loyal allies, finalizing the arrangements for the day. He contacted Morant late at night, just briefly, and, according to multiple sources, he shared what the minister already knew while leaving room for future agreements in the process that was just opening.
The divergence had followed days of offers and counteroffers aimed at reshaping command roles. The first rate-tighter move came from Soler, who unsettled Morant with a proposal that would make her the general secretary while giving him control of the party. The minister’s counter-proposal leaned the other way: he would take the presidency; the first deputy secretary would go to Soler, the second to Bielsa, and he would hold veto authority over the Organization. No agreement was reached, and the gap remained.
When Soler appeared yesterday, Bielsa and Morant spoke again in Valencia, just as in Fitur in the prior days. There was no public breakthrough to report.