The news earned headlines and murmurs of astonishment, although in reality it was – like so many things – a matter of time. Concha Andreu began her trip to Madrid in the 23J elections, when she agreed to head the PSOE lists for the Senate; a movement similar to that of others … socialist presidents dethroned by the blue wave that was unleashed in the regional elections. Everyone (or a good part of the world) imagined that at that moment he would resign his seat in the Parliament of La Rioja and maybe – just maybe – he would open a process of organic renewal. Neither one thing nor the other: the adrenaline of a new electoral event justified a tightening of the ranks and Andreu prepared to make compatible the senatorial robe and the seat in the regional chamber, although he handed over the spokesperson to the mayor of Arnedo, Javier García.
A year later, Andreu announced to the Executive his decision to resign from his seat in the Parliament of La Rioja and his desire not to run for re-election in a next ordinary congress. He did not appear publicly or respond to the requests of this newspaper, but preferred to post a letter of gratitude to the members on social networks. A day later, he gave an interview to Cadena SER. He said that he had decided to stay until the party “stabilized”, once the electoral hustle and bustle was over: Galician, Basque, Catalan and European. “Now that the game is calm and there is a lot of time ahead, the time has come to step aside,” he said.
Previous resignation in the Executive
Time is elastic and relative, as Einstein taught us, but perhaps the concept of tranquility is not so elastic. The party has experienced these months from shock to shock and the tides are far from abating. As this newspaper has learned, on June 15, two days before Andreu made the decision to announce his definitive retirement to the sweet beaches of the Senate, the general secretary of the Municipal Group of Logroño, Víctor Moratinos, had presented his resignation irrevocable of the Executive, apparently upset by the interference of the management core in local management. Moratinos is not only the leader of the largest socialist group in number of members, but he also held the position of deputy secretary of Organization. He was, at least on paper, María Marrodán’s number two.
Marrodán, a councilor in the Logroño City Council, would have been expected to occupy the seat that the former president left vacant in the regional Parliament, but Andreu herself revealed in the SER microphones that she was not going to pick up the deputy’s certificate. In his place will be the next one on the regional list, Daniel Carrillo, mayor of Brieva, Secretary of Strategy and man of Concha Andreu’s absolute confidence. “He is the only one who knew how to get along with César Luena and his brave character,” he praised him. The former president’s resignation will be verified after this Thursday’s plenary session, dedicated entirely to the approval of the Highway Plan.
And now that? American journalists coined the concept of ‘lame duck’ to define the last year of presidents who cannot run for re-election and must leave the White House. When his final has a fixed date, the boss suddenly loses a good part of his authority and no one pays much attention to him anymore. He thus becomes the lame duck who cannot follow the herd. His subordinates, who until four days ago laughed at him, begin to ignore him and look for a life elsewhere. They put much more interest in guessing who will be the next leader. Andreu’s decision to delay her departure until an ordinary congress is held, which could be delayed for more than a year, entails for her the danger of becoming a ‘lame duck’ and of undauntedly attending a war for impossible succession. to control.
All eyes now point to Javier García. The mayor of Arnedo remains silent, although no one doubts that he aspires to lead the party. We still remember that tweet in which he praised Ximo Puig’s “generosity” with a poisonous phrase: “The success of a leader is not evidenced by the end of his project, but by facilitating its continuity.” At SER they asked the former president about that veiled mention by the parliamentary spokesperson. “Sometimes, youth, desire, can give rise to using phrases that do not correspond to reality,” Andreu concluded.
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