Santos Cerdán joined the PSOE at the age of 30, in 1999, shortly before running in the municipal elections in which he was a municipal councilor for Milagro, in Navarra, for the first time. Shortly afterwards, in 2004, he was already at the helm of the PSOE in that federation which was irrelevant in terms of the number of militants (just over 1,500 in the last internal consultation) and without a tradition of government. When all the powers of the PSOE turned against Pedro Sánchez in 2016, Santos Cerdán was already using his participation in Servinabar to take advantage of public opinion. This is what the UCO report states, from which a terrible conclusion emerges for the PSOE: that the 2017 primaries were a window of opportunity for Cerdán to broaden the scope of his adventures. That the PSOE had an Organization Secretary who defrauded its members from the beginning.
The extent of Cerdán’s fraud is best understood by looking back. In the PSOE there was an all-out battle for power in 2016. Those who had promoted Pedro Sánchez as a straw man mobilized to remove him as general secretary. The heads of the large federations, the majority of the organic staff, the former presidents of the government and the main mayors have lined up against Sánchez. It was an “everyone against Sánchez” which ended up causing a convergence effect of very different interests. There were some illustrious leaders who wanted to wage a real battle for a new model of PSOE, there were those who jumped on the bandwagon to avenge their personal grievances and even those, from the corners of the PSOE, saw an opportunity to put themselves at the centre.
This is the context of Santos Cerdán’s rise. It did not have a socialist pedigree, which at the time was almost an asset for many militants, angry at the demonized PSOE apparatus. With Podemos on the heels of the socialists, the history of the bases against the elites, the castes, which represented the institutional and organic socialist positions took root in the old party. From a federation holdover, with a checked shirt and a rural air, Cerdán joined forces with Sánchez and quickly became a familiar face at “let’s all get together” and fists-in-the-air rallies across Spain. It was Cerdán who brought the 57,000 signatures to Ferraz for Sánchez to run. That May 4, 2017, before the recount, with Koldo García controlling the signatures and PSOE heavyweights questioning the veracity of the endorsements, it was Santos Cerdán who gave his word that everything in those boxes were endorsements; In short, trust in a political project.
Santos Cerdán’s coup is very hard for the PSOE because it touches the roots of many things. The UCO report reveals that on May 23, two days after the militants gave Sánchez a resounding victory in the primaries, one of Sanchismo’s leaders sought direct contact with Acciona to discuss the first contract of the plot. Cerdán, according to information gathered by the UCO, arrived at the PSOE to take advantage of its acronyms and the wealth of trust of its militants. The image of his wife Paqui handing over the papers to El Corte Inglés embarrasses many honest socialists who identified with that simple-looking couple, who shared a table and tablecloth with them and also with the President of the Government.
The courts will rule on criminal liability in this case, but the latest UCO report dispels the secret hope some might have harbored that it was all a nightmare. Incredible as it may seem, in November 2024, when the conspiracy was already under investigation, Santos Cerdán allowed his party to re-elect him secretary of the Organization at the Seville congress. The big political bite in this case is the one that Santos Cerdán took from the PSOE.
