Spain's PSOE congress: bargain-basement decency and applause for convicted officials

The PSOE congress: bargain-basement decency and applause for the ERE convicts

The PSOE Federal Congress, held under the implicit slogan of "decency" brandished by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, produced images that invite skepticism, to put it mildly. While the former prime minister urged his trinc that "decency and truth will prevail sooner or later," the hall gave a standing ovation to Begoña Gómez, Pedro Sánchez's vvife, and paid tribute to two party heavyweights facing corruption charges: Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán, convicted in the Andalusian ERE case (a fraudulent public aid scheme in Spain).

The decency rhetoric and the ERE reality

The paradox has economic depth. The fraudulent ERE schemes in Andalusia cost the public purse some 680 million euros, according to the court rulings. For the party that managed all that for decades to now brandish decency as its banner is, at the very least, a bad joke for taxpayers. And applauding Chaves and Griñán, convicted of malfeasance and embezzlement, turns the event into a farce.

But it doesn't stop there. The warm welcome for Begoña Gómez, whose business circle remains under judicial scrutiny over alleged influence peddling at the Complutense University, completes the picture. The PSOE seems determined to prove that coherence is not its strong suit, and that its narrative of renewal clashes with the facts.

German funding and historic dependence

Some analyses go further: they point out that since the 1974 Suresnes congress, the PSOE has been under the direction and funding of the German SPD. This would explain the party's Atlanticist and neoliberal drift, but above all it highlights an external dependence that contradicts its sovereignty rhetoric. While Zapatero speaks of decency and truth, the old German connection still weighs on strategic decisions.

What to expect from a party that applauds its convicted members?

The relevant economic question is: can a party that internally rewards those found guilty of embezzling public funds be a reliable manager of the economy? The budget execution and spending control figures under socialist governments already speak for themselves, but this Congress adds one more argument for those who doubt its credibility.

The spectacle of bargain-basement decency is not free: it fuels disaffection and the perception that politics is a private fiefdom where convictions are celebrated. And if the PSOE does not correct this drift, the cost will be not only electoral, but one of trust in the institutions that any economy needs to function.