Spain’s Minister of Transport has tentatively thrown his hat in the ring as a potential successor to Pedro Sánchez when the leader of the PSOE steps down.
Spain’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has left the door open to succeed Pedro Sánchez as Secretary General of the PSOE when the time for succession comes.
However, Puente hasn’t outright said he would be vying for the top spot or competing against Sánchez.
During an interview with Spanish news agency Europa Press published on Sunday, he said: “I don’t think I’m that kind of player. I don’t think I have to take the last shot, to use a basketball analogy.
“But if the ball came to me with two seconds left and I had to take the shot, I’m not one of those who passes it”.
Puente, formerly the mayor of Valladolid, is widely known for his aggressive and direct communication style on social media and high-profile parliamentary clashes.
The outspoken MP often uses social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to directly confront journalists, political rivals and critics, famously calling right-wing agitator Vito Quiles “un saco de mierda” (a sack of shit) and openly mocking the opposition PP in the Spanish Congress.
He’s also a staunch defender of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which came across in the interview when he called the PM “the best possible leader”, adding that he has to “last” in his position as Spanish premier, a position he’s held since 2018.
In yet another basketball analogy, Puente dubbed Sánchez “the (Michael) Jordan of the team”.
“The party has the best possible leader, which is Pedro Sánchez, and proof of this is that if he weren’t, he wouldn’t be the target of all the attacks from the right,” the Transport Minister argued.
Following the release of the interview and the interest it generated, Puente himself pointed out on social media that there is an “obsession among many” to open the succession debate and place him at the centre of it.
He downplayed his words by arguing that what he said could apply to the succession of Sánchez, the Pope, or even Kylian Mbappé.
So far, Sánchez has never publicly expressed a desire to step down from frontline politics, although he has set himself the goal of governing until 2031.
Puente believes that at that point he will step aside and a change of leadership will take place.
“I am convinced that it would very likely be his last term, even for personal reasons,” the 57-year old MP stated.
“Therefore, in four or five years, “who knows what might happen?”
Puente doesn’t feature as one of Spain’s most popular politicians according to the polls.
Instead he’s seen as a rather polarising figure whose style generates very divided opinions.
Those most aligned with his party liken him to a communications ‘battering ram’ capable of confronting the opposition harshly, while his critics label him as excessively aggressive and institutionally unrefined.
