A total of 16 deputies have already left the socialist parliamentary group. More than 13% of the 121 who were elected in the last elections and, to a large extent, list heads. Half correspond to ministers who leave the minutes to tie the votes more securely in the event of possible agenda complications. The rest of the dismissals have occurred for different reasons such as abandoning politics, the incompatibility of positions after the appointments with the formation of the Government or allowing the list to run to allow the entry of other positions.
The first to leave her record, at the beginning of September, was the head of the PSC list and former president of Congress, Meritxell Batet. After 19 years as a parliamentarian, minister and president of the Chamber in the last legislature, she decided move away from “the front line of politics”. A step aside that those around him reported that he had meditated some time before and after having contributed to winning the elections in Catalonia, with 19 deputies compared to the 14 that the pro-independence forces added.
The next casualties were those of Antonio Hernando and Francisco Salazar, shortly after the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, coinciding with their confirmations in the president’s cabinet. The first as deputy director and the second as general secretary of Political Planning. Both positions are incompatible with the deputy’s record. The chief of staff of the President of the Government, Óscar López, although he could make her minutes compatible, also left it to encourage the list to run through the Madrid constituency.
With the formation of the Government, the PSOE decided to replace the majority of the ministers with deputy status. TO president’s hard core exception of the Government made up of the fourth vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, and the Minister of Justice and Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the head of Transportation, Óscar Puente. In this way, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, and the ministers José Manuel Albares (Foreign Affairs), Margarita Robles (Defense), Fernando Grande-Marlaska (Interior), Pilar Alegría (Education, Sports and Spokesperson), Luis Planas (Agriculture) were dismissed. ), Isabel Rodríguez (Housing) and Diana Morant (Science). In Sumar, however, its five ministers keep the minutes.
New electoral cycle
To the casualties of the majority of deputy ministers, as already happened in the last legislature, were added those caused by other appointments that present incompatibility with the parliamentary position. The last ones approved in the Council of Ministers, those of the deputy for Cáceres, Begoña García Bernal, the new Secretary of State for Agriculture, and the deputy and former mayor of Toledo, Milagros Tolón, as delegate of the Government in Castilla-La Mancha.
Before that, the former Ministers of Industry, Héctor Gómez, and Sports, Miquel Iceta, also left their minutes. The first due to his new responsibilities as Spanish ambassador to the UN and the second as ambassador of Spain to UNESCO.
The next electoral cycle, with the Galician, Basque and European elections In the first semester it may continue to cause changes in the parliamentary group. To begin with, the PSdG candidate for the Xunta de Galicia is deputy for Lugo José Ramón Gómez Besteiro.
Jump of six places on the lists
The federation that has benefited the most from these movements has been the one from Madrid. The list for the Madrid constituency is the one that has seen the most losses. In addition to those of ministers and other positions, it is also added that David Lucas and Pilar Sánchez Acera did not collect their minutes, also due to incompatibility. In this way, Javier Rodríguez, Hana Jalloul, Víctor Gutiérrez and Zaida Cantera have joined the parliamentary group. The latter ran as number 16 and in the last elections on June 23, the socialists obtained ten certificates. He general secretary of the Socialist YouthVíctor Camino, who holds a position that traditionally has representation in the socialist group, also entered Congress after running the list through Valencia.
The socialist group concentrates all the casualties that have occurred in Congress – not counting the group changes and loans of deputies for the constitution of its own group – except one that corresponds to the popular group. That of Luis Alberto Marín, who left the Upper House last September to become economics advisor again in the Region of Murcia, for which he attended the general elections as the head of the list.
