Ábalos and the ashes

"I never lose a political battle." José Luis Ábalos uttered the phrase to a small group of journalists at a luncheon in 1999, and it comes back to me again. He was a councilor at Valencia City Hall, and a year later he ran for leadership of the PSPV (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), the second largest Spanish socialist federation. He didn't succeed, but he made clear his political ambition and his ability to forge rock-solid connections, perhaps thanks to the lessons learned in school when he was a member of the Communist Party when he was almost a teenager. He created his own political family within Valencian socialism, alongside other groups like the Lermistas or Ciscaristas, who for 20 years, from Joan Lerma's defeat in 1995 to Ximo Puig's victory in 2015, dedicated themselves to an exemplary fratricidal war that left many political corpses. He resisted numerous conspiracies within the establishment, established intense relationships with key players in the Valencian press, He always knew how to navigate Madrid, and whenever some considered him finished, he rose from the ashes like a phoenix. Although his greatest feat was backing Pedro Sánchez when he had been sacrificed in that famous federal committee.

Together, he and Sánchez traveled across Spain by car, departing from the Valencian town of Xirivella, to recapture, months later, the general secretary position of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and, from there, rise to the presidency of the government, with an authority unknown in Spanish socialism since the days of Felipe González. That epic adventure has never been detailed, but it featured many interesting episodes, with the participation of political figures who now desperately seek anonymity. Sánchez surely completed his personal resistance manual by observing the skills of this Valencian with a grave, Jacobin, pragmatic gaze and the demeanor of a security guard, very given to face-to-face brawls, and who had friends, as they say, even in hell.

He will die killing and, if he does not survive, everything around him will probably be burned to ashes.

Then came the glory of power, in the Council of Ministers as Minister of Public Works and as the PSOE's organizational secretary, from where he unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Ximo Puig with a forced primary in 2017. Paradise was short-lived, because first came decline and then scandal, now spiced up by leaked WhatsApp messages that reveal, regardless of their content, that the two had enjoyed an excellent relationship before the Koldo case. But those of us who knew the origins of his long and turbulent path know that Ábalos was always an uncomfortable, difficult enemy, endowed with a strong survival instinct, comfortable in the trenches. In other words: he will die killing or, like the aforementioned mythical bird, he will try to survive, and if he doesn't succeed, everything around him will most likely be turned to ashes...