translated from Spanish: Elizalde: “PS is not captured at all by drug trafficking”

The president of the Socialist Party, Alvaro Elizalde, referred in the “Central Table” program of Channel 13 to the crisis that the collective is experiencing, and to the possibility of calling an extraordinary council to analyze the solutions. “It’s probably been the hardest week I’ve ever faced in my political life,” the senator, who also claimed to be “outraged” with what was seen in the Channel 13 report, regarding the internal elections in San Ramon, said. “When I saw in the report you broadcast, that a person whose expulsion to the party I requested was in the vicinity of the polling place, i was sparked, to say the least, outrage,” he said. In the same vein, Elizalde stressed that “the Socialist Party is not captured at all by drug trafficking. That would mean that decisions have some kind of influence from these kinds of groups, and that’s not the case,” he said. “A different issue is that, for two factors, the inflation of standards and clientelism, are probably part of our militant pattern people who do not share our values and principles,” he added, stressing that they must conduct an audit “that we allow this issue to be clarified.” On the criticism he has received for not taking more drastic measures before, Elizalde responded by stating that “those within the party criticize me for not taking action, I want to tell them that we had a congress in January. Precisely to address these issues. And none of those he criticizes today even raised his hand to make any proposals on this matter.” On the other hand, he ruled out convening an extraordinary congress on the PS to discuss and solve the party’s problems, stating that he is not “for solutions between four walls of popular character, back to the voice of the militants. Secondly, an extraordinary congress requires at least 10 months for its conduct.” In turn, he argued that “the decisions that we should choose must be opted for now and that is why we are working on a set of proposals that we are going to announce when the central committee is formed”.

Original source in Spanish