The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities and Secretary General of the PSPV-PSOE, Diana Morant, has called for a “historical” mobilization that will allow an “epic comeback” with which the Socialist Party can govern after the general elections of 29 November. “And I don’t know about you, but I see our Pedro triumphant. And I have to tell him, once again, ‘thank you, Pedro, for wanting to keep being our president, despite everything, despite the persecution and dehumanization, for continuing to decide that it’s worth it,’” she stressed.
Morant spoke at a campaign event this Saturday in València, accompanied by the head of the PSOE list for València for the 29N, Pilar Bernabé, the spokesperson for the PSM in the Assembly of Madrid, Mar Espinar, and the candidate for the Senate Jordi Mayor, at a rally held in the Valencian capital.
“We’re going for an epic comeback; we’re going to win and we’re going to govern,” the Socialist leader insisted, who made a direct appeal to teachers and to the families that defend public schooling, to those who fight for the right to housing and against evictions, to the people who have been alongside the victims of the dana, and to those who demand quality public healthcare. As she emphasized, “we are more and we are better.”
The head of the PSPV-PSOE has warned that the Comunitat Valenciana “can’t afford” four more years of governance by the PP and Vox and has highlighted the strength of those who have mobilized in defense of their rights. In this context, she demanded that “public hospitals reopen their operating rooms in the afternoons to treat patients,” and she contrasted the Botànic model, “which brought back to public management the hospitals of Alzira, Dénia and Torrevieja,” with the decision of the current Consell “to renew the concession for the Elx-Crevillent hospital”: “Public healthcare belongs to the Valencian people and not to a business.”
Morant has linked this debate to the privatization model promoted by the PP in the Comunitat Valenciana and that the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has converted, as she has said, "into one of her main hallmarks." She thanked the presence of Mar Espinar, whose experience in Madrid, she pointed out, makes it possible to check the consequences of Ayuso’s policies. In addition, she warned that the Madrid president is the "political benchmark" of the mayor of València, María José Catalá, and has warned that "the model of cuts, privatization and business with public services that the Madrid right represents also threatens Valencians."
Management of the dana and "El Ventorro"
The also general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE has focused on the management of the dana. "El Ventorro is a political category," she has reiterated, to denounce that what happened on October 29, 2024 "was not only the absence of Carlos Mazón during the decisive hours, but also the actions of a Consell that was not up to the emergency and that afterward dedicated itself to building a narrative to hide its mistakes."
On another level, she has questioned that the PP "cannot display with pride" its former presidents of the Generalitat and has contrasted that record with the period in government of the 'former president' Ximo Puig, present at the event. Morant has cited Eduardo Zaplana, Francisco Camps and Carlos Mazón as examples of a past "from which the Populars seem to disown" and has posed a question to the audience: "If they are ashamed of what they are in the Comunitat Valenciana, how do they think someone will vote for them on 29N?"
The Socialist leader has also urged protecting women’s rights in the face of a right that, she has denounced, "seeks to roll back decades of progress." "You cannot govern against women," she said, before emphasizing that she will not allow consolidated rights such as "equality, sexual and reproductive freedom, or reconciliation" to be called into question. "The notable sons of Francoism will not return. They will not pass, they will not return to govern," she has proclaimed.
Morant has concluded by assuring that the survey of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) is being created because "it’s what I feel like and because, in 2023, all the surveys said that we were going to lose and the only survey that said we were going to govern was the one from the CIS, so this time the only survey that tells us that we are going to govern is the one that will be right, because we are going to win and we are going to govern".
Bernabé warns of a "threat" to València
For her part, the PSOE’s secretary for Equality and top candidate for València to the Congress, Pilar Bernabé, has asked to choose between "advance" and "retreat" and has argued that the PSOE will once again drive a "wave of progress" that will place Morant at the head of the Generalitat. She has also warned that María José Catalá’s decision to take Ayuso as a political reference point entails "a symptom" and "a threat" for València.
Bernabé has countered with the "cuts and privatisation model" that she attributes to both leaders in relation to socialist policies and has criticized the municipal management of housing, "with public land earmarked for developments whose prices are beyond the reach of much of the citizenry". "How are we going to pay for homes at 390,000 euros?", she asked, before warning that "more and more neighbors are being forced to leave the city because they can’t afford to live in it".
The candidate has also censured the PP’s actions during the dana and has asked "who can vote for those who abandoned the citizenry and didn’t warn the population in time". "We need—she added—that people understand this difference in model, and this is what we have at stake on November 29."
"When things go badly, when there is an emergency, when there is a catastrophe, and when they need someone to lend a hand, you know who they can rely on and, of course, never again on the Partido Popular, which is still stuck in El Ventorro while Mr Mazón is there, in that seat, defended by all of that court of the Partido Popular, while he earns more than he can afford and defrauding Les Corts by charging what he shouldn’t charge in order to show, already, the greatest indecency that that government entails for this land," Bernabé reproached, who then added: "Does it occur to anyone that on November 29 the people of València are going to vote for the one that represents the greatest indignity that the Valencian people has suffered in the history of this community? Who is going to vote for those who left us abandoned?"
On this line, the socialist leader has claimed the role of women in public life and has argued that it cannot be allowed that “four guys are the ones who decide” on “life, the body, reconciliation or the working day” of women.
Criticism of Ayuso’s model and call to the Senate
Mar Espinar has warned of the consequences of Ayuso’s model and has argued that there is a social majority that aspires to a Spain “with a future for all.” She has warned that the right “seeks to dismantle the welfare state” and “weaken education, healthcare, pensions, and the social protection mechanisms.”
Jordi Mayor, for his part, has asserted the joint candidacy of progressive forces to the Senate as an instrument to break the PP’s “blockade” in the Upper House and ensure that the territories, especially the Comunitat Valenciana, have a voice in Madrid. “We are not coming to change an absolute majority of the PP for one of the PSOE; we are coming to change indignity for decency,” he concluded.