Francina Armengol says goodbye to Balearic politics: "I do it out of responsibility"

PalmaThe president of Congress and general secretary of the PSIB-PSOE, Francina Armengol, announced this Saturday, at a party event in Palma, that she will not run in the primaries to lead the socialist candidacy for the 2027 regional elections. "I am doing this out of enormous responsibility at this moment in time. I believe it is for the best," she stated.

Despite stepping aside in the race for the presidency of the Government, Armengol has championed the socialist project and is convinced that the party will regain the Consolat de Mar. "It is a decision we make with strength, with desire, with utopia and with dreams. In 2027 we will govern this autonomous community again," she affirmed. She also defended that "elections are won by spreading enthusiasm" and presenting "serious and rigorous proposals, with serious and reliable people".

The socialist leader also explained that she is willing to be part of the candidacy for the Congress of Deputies if the party decides so when Pedro Sánchez calls the next general elections, also scheduled for 2027.

Armengol was president of the Balearic Government for two consecutive legislatures, between 2015 and 2023, she has held the General Secretariat of the PSIB since 2012 – a position she will maintain – and has been president of Congress since 2023.

The primaries begin in July

One year before the regional elections, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, emerges as one of the main favorites to replace her at the head of the candidacy, although the name of the PSIB leader in Mallorca, Amanda Fernández, is also gaining strength. The decision will be in the hands of the membership during the primaries process that will open in July.

Armengol has detailed that next Saturday, June 27, the Federal Committee of the PSOE will approve the primary calendar and that the PSIB will activate it immediately. "The membership will decide, as always, who will lead the Socialist Party's candidacy for the presidency of the Balearic Islands," she remarked.

The first processes will serve to choose the candidates for the Government, the four island councils, and the main municipalities of the Archipelago. Subsequently, it will be the turn of the rest of the municipalities and the candidacy for the general elections.

The PP accuses Armengol of listening to citizens "three years late" "The only thing the PP does well is lie"

"The PP is playing with our present and our future", she warned. According to the socialist leader, "the only thing the PP does well is lie" and she assured that "the PP's model is Vicent Marí, the only person from these islands who has to go to trial for corruption". "The PP does not need Vox to do barbarities", she concluded, before encouraging the militancy to maintain "strength, conviction, ideas and hope".

The socialist leader has contrasted the balance of the sixteen years of government of the Pacte de Progrés – health, education, the ecotax, the protection of the territory and the free public transport – with the management of the current PP Government. She has reproached Marga Prohens' Executive for having allowed health waiting lists to grow, for the rent price to skyrocket, for having legalized illegal urban planning, while the PP deputies in Madrid vote against raising the minimum wage and pensions.The PP accuses Armengol of listening to citizens "three years late"

For its part, the PP has stated that Francina Armengol has listened to the citizens of the Balearic Islands "three years late," who "removed" her from the Government in the 2023 regional elections, when Marga Prohens won the elections. The spokesperson for the Balearic PP, Sebastià Sagreras, has thus analyzed the decision of the President of Congress and Secretary General of the PSIB-PSOE to renounce running in the 2027 elections.The popular leader also recalled that the socialists were defeated by the PP in the subsequent general and European elections held in the Islands and assured that the polls continue to reflect an electoral setback for the PSOE in the Balearic Islands. Sagreras also linked Armengol's decision to the corruption cases affecting the PSOE environment and considered that with this step the socialist leader "assumes responsibility for corruption and for opening the doors of the Balearic Islands to the Koldo plot".