T-junction ahead

CONFIDENT Jose Luis Abalos: A fixer and a doer.

CONFIDENT Jose Luis Abalos: A fixer and a doer.

THE PSOE Organisation secretary Jose Luis Abalos has no worries that the party’s voters might not turn out for a November election.

Jose Luis Abalos is also the man who managed to get Pedro Sanchez through the desert after October 2016.

The PSOE secretary general, Sanchez became famous and then notorious for pronouncing ‘No means no’ in October 2016, intent on preventing Mariano Rajoy from forming a government after the second inconclusive general elections in six months.

Sanchez’s refusal to allow the PSOE’s MPs to abstain would have forced a third election and his own party, already haemorrhaging seats, said ‘no thank you.’

The party executive took away Sanchez’s power and he began his long trudge across the desert as the party pariah.

He was accompanied by Abalos, an MP for Valencia hardly noticed outside the region, but a fixer and a doer inside the party.

In late 2016 and early 2017 Sanchez began popping up in places where he was sure of a warm welcome.

The pair did so well that Sanchez slayed Susana Diaz in the May 2017 secretary general primaries and the rest, as they say, is recent history.

Sanchez’s inability or reluctance to coax allies into backing his July investiture could lead to a November election, but Abalos claims that neither he nor the party is apprehensive.

He’s shown himself to be astute so far and has ensured that Sanchez has travelled further along the road than once appeared possible. 

But there could be an unseen T-junction up ahead just round the next corner.

Fear of flying solo

PABLO CASADO is another who’s not bothered about a November general election.

He believes he’s in a strong position now that the Partido Popular has Madrid City Hall and Madrid’s regional government tucked under its belt once more.

He’s definitely in a better position than after the dismal general election results and the slightly less dismal municipal and regional results.

All the same, he’s kidding himself if he believes that he and the Partido Popular are where they are right because of his pretty face and policies. 

The Partido Popular is where it is now thanks to Ciudadanos and Vox and yes, Casado could pull off it with their help in November.

But flying solo?  He hasn’t a hope.

Ransom note

PABLO CASADO is giving Vox the glad eye with indirect requests to join his hypothetical Partido Popular-Ciudadanos-Vox voting alliance, España Suma. 

Ciudadanos has already turned down the request and Vox could follow suit.

It would rather wait until after a hypothetical election before holding the PP and Cs to ransom for its meagre but vital share of the poll.

Try it

SPAIN’S transition following Franco’s death in 1975 was always held up as an example of how to transmute dictatorship into democracy.

Nevertheless, there’s still one thing that its politicians haven’t tried out and that’s forming a coalition government. Unfortunately, none of them is giving signs of wanting to give it a go and this is one experience that could remain forever virgin.

Author badge placeholder
Written by

Cassandra

Comments