New society, new politics. The primary debate between the candidates for the general secretariat of the PSOE of Extremadura was an opportunity to get to know them for what they think politically. It was not clear if they think anything. What we suspected was evident: in the PSOE there are no ideas and, therefore, there is no debate.
The winner (Álvaro Sánchez Cotrina) said in an interview that he was neither Sanchista nor anti-Sanchista (that is, nothing), although all the regional Sanchismo supported him. He affirmed that his only interest is Extremadura, but Álvaro Sánchez has been provincial secretary of the PSOE of Cáceres for a year and has not reprimanded national deputies Almodóvar Sánchez and Ramos Esteban for voting in favor of Pedro Sánchez's interests and against those of Extremadurans.
The family sagas of the Cáceres Provincial Council
Being almost 40 years old and having been in politics since 25 helps to know him a little: he is like the others. Since 2023 he has had high responsibilities in the Diputación de Cáceres, and we continue to read surnames of PSOE militants in the provincial body: of husbands and wives, of brothers and sisters, of sons and daughters, of friends and lovers; the usual. In fact, its provincial executive is a broad catalog of political inheritances and family sagas: the clientelistic networks of all life.
The new general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura is the godson of Miguel Ángel Morales, the all-powerful leader of the province of Cáceres and its Provincial Council for no less than fifteen years. If Miguel Ángel Gallardo put Borrego Rodríguez in Badajoz, Miguel Ángel Morales put Sánchez Cotrina in Cáceres. Nothing new.
The data of Morales-Cotrina, Cotrina-Morales: have lost in the province of Cáceres three out of four regional elections, the last two with the worst historical results. The only exception was 2019, with the wind in favor of the new Pedro Sánchez in Moncloa, until he revealed himself as the traitor and liar that we all know today.
The defenders of Sánchez Cotrina
His other great support in the province of Cáceres is the Federation of Public Services of UGT (FeSP), known for ousting in 2011 (with Morales' support) the last leader of the PSOE in Cáceres worthy of the name, Carmen Heras, and for co-opting since then, until its destruction, the socialist group in the capital of Cáceres. First with Vicente Valle Barbero and later with Belén Fernández Casero, valid for Pedro Sánchez in Extremadura.
The first best decision of the new general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura would be to recover that group, applying article 3.2 of the PSOE Statutes, which prohibits organized tendencies: that is exactly what FeSP has been for twenty years, to the sole benefit of its army of union officials. But how is Álvaro going to do that if he owes them the victory?
Given the impossibility of knowing him by his meager professional resume, by his unpublished ideas, by his unknown political project, by his absent differences with the previous ones or by the null bold renewal in his year of mandate, he can only be known by his supporters: more of the same old thing.
Resume
Creator of the Independent Progressive Union - SIP, "the only union that works seven days a week", he states, is a historic leader of the PSOE in Extremadura, who decided to abandon his political career after the disappointment he suffered from the leadership of Pedro Sánchez, of whom at the time he said through a controversial letter: "he is fallacious, narcissistic, and undemocratic". Pérez Romero was a significant sanchista in this region, during Pedro Sánchez's primary campaign.
Enrique Pérez Romero is a political scientist graduated in Political Science from the National University of Distance Education (UNED) (June 2025), a professional expert in Advanced Technologies for the Dissemination and Valorization of Cultural Heritage, by the UNED (April 2024), and a doctor in Audiovisual Communication, Advertising and Public Relations from the Complutense University of Madrid. Furthermore, he holds a degree in Information Sciences, Visual and Auditory Image Sciences Branch (now, Audiovisual Communication) from the UCM (September 1997).