Ruby Whacks (Chacón): PSOE leadership

In the words of the Kaiser Chiefs, "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. Do ya, do ya, do ya?" It would be nice to think that at PSOE's grand, post-electoral-disaster congress, the PA system would have belted out the number by the Leeds indie-ists as Alfredo Rubalcaba got the nod as the party's new secretary-general. It almost certainly didn't happen. Apart from anything else, it would have been way too modern for old grey beard. More suitable would have been Cilla asking what it was all about, Alfie.

Ruby's win didn't exactly amount to a ringing endorsement. He staggered over the finishing-line with just 22 votes more than his rival, Carme Chacón. PSOE had the opportunity to put a woman in charge and to perhaps make her the first female premier of Spain, and they turned it down.

In the spirit of equality, Ruby has appointed Elena Valenciano as his number two, but this doesn't represent a great leap forward for womankind in Spanish politics. Zapatero had a woman as his "número dos" before Ruby replaced her. Rajoy has a right-hand woman as well.

Yet more equality has been shown in the selection as secretary for equality of one Purificación Causapié. What an astonishing name. Equality that comes with its own in-built system for treating the impurities of discrimination.

And there, lurking at the bottom of the list of runners and riders in shadow government secretarial roles, are the members of the executive, amongst whom is Mallorca's very own Francina Armengol, she who would be the new leader of PSOE in the Balearics. Having thrown her lot in with the victorious Uncle Alfie, Francina looks set to indeed be head socialist in the islands.

The defeat of Chacón will not be great news for the other pretender to the Balearics socialist throne, ex-Palma mayor Aina Calvo. It hasn't been entirely clear if Aina really is a pretender, as she has been distinctly equivocal on the matter. She had been angling for a gig rather grander than a mere executive member with Chacón. So now that she won't be getting one, the chances are that she will make a bid for the Balearics title. But she'd probably lose.

PSOE have, with Rubalcaba, opted for a safe pair of hands, ones that, in his own peculiar style, play a piano when he's speaking. For safe pair of hands, read boring, in much the same way as Rajoy is safe and utterly uninspiring. Not for the first time, and Rajoy is the prime example of this, Spanish politics has refused to dump a loser.

Chacón might have been the better bet, if only because the Rajoy government is starting to demonstrate - and no surprise here - that it wishes to retreat to the past. Rubalcaba is going to need all of Purificación's powers to prevent the hands of the liberalism clock being turned back. The national government's justice minister, and note that it is the justice minister and not the health minister, has said that it will undo some of the abortion legislation of the Zapatero era. In so doing, it will also set back the cause of women in Spanish society.

Which does make you wonder about Rajoy's right-hand woman. The lavishly named María Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has already emerged as being the trouser-wearer in the Rajoy governmental household. When she first hovered onto the radar, and without my having any real idea about her, good old male intuition kicked in. And it is proving to be right. As Edward Hugh, one of the best writers in English on Spain's economics, has said: "what Soraya says goes".

If Soraya is aiming to be the new iron lady, she's going about it the right way. Iron ladies don't do much for the advancement of women though. Thatcher didn't, in that most women had no wish to be perceived in the same way as the mad bat.

Soraya could be Spain's first prime minister. If it turns out that she were to usurp Rajoy, it would be far better were she to go head to head and handbag to handbag with Chacón and not Uncle Alfie. Sparks would fly. And so they should, as the government is showing just how reactionary it was suspected that it would be.

For now though, it is Rubalcaba steering the listing PSOE back on course. Spain needs a strong opposition, and at least Rubalcaba has experience if not a great deal of charisma. He'll know what is demanded, but if he didn't, rather than "Ruby", they could play him the Kaiser Chiefs' first album "Employment", the best-known song from which was "I Predict A Riot".


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.