Neither white flag, nor self-criticism: the left seeks direction after the surprise of 23-J

The left led by Sumar has not finished digesting the “relief” and even the euphoria after the 23-J elections, and is already fully involved in the negotiations to form the Congress Table and revalidate the coalition government, almost without stop for air. Just what they have not been able to do in recent months. Different actors in this space already warn that it is time to sit down and chart the course for the new political course, laden with uncertainties.. And, after Yolanda Díaz's platform announced that it will set up its party structure after the summer, without advancing dates, some of the organizations that make up the confluence have made a move before the summer break, which will last until shortly before the constitution of the Cortes (August 17). The latest CIS documents that not even one in three Spaniards trusted Pedro Sánchez's options. Overcome the surprise, it's time to keep moving forward. Pablo Iglesias himself came out to question his results on the same election night, when he promised that the five purple deputies would claim their “autonomy”. Hours later, Ione Belarra did the same and different purple leaders ignored the call for “amnesty”.

The climate, however, was particular because, as long as there are options to reissue the coalition government, no one can justify a total offensive against the leader of Sumar. The purples reached the crossroads, and at this point new differences began to surface on how to act. On Sunday, Juan Carlos Monedero, the leading intellectual and co-founder of the party, published an article in which he advocated holding a “citizen conference” or even a congress —Asamblea Ciudadana— to reconnect with the bases.. He called for self-criticism, and warned that Podemos “has not debated its course for years and is on the defensive”.

None of the first purple swords publicly supported the Monedero en Público article, not even on social networks, the forum where they express themselves most clearly today. A day later, Iglesias and Belarra did share a text from the former spokesman for United We Can, Pablo Echenique, in which he warned that the unity of the left, understood as a “fetish”, leads to a scenario in which his own lose their autonomy and, paradoxically, this “serves” to “kill Podemos”. Like Echenique, the professor of Political Science at the Complutense University criticized that Díaz had made his party go under table football, but Monedero also asked to clarify the diagnosis to the inmate and with his new allies, and the latter avoided this scenario. In his formation, there was no official reading, no answer on the other side of the phone line; They have withdrawn to winter quarters, and they have done so without summoning the highest management body —State Citizen Council—. Also without giving certainties to a militancy from which Belarra demanded a blank check to decide on the pact with Díaz. He got it, but, two weeks after the elections, no one gives any clues about what the next steps will be.

At least, not beyond warning that there will be no white flag, that they will fight for every decision they consider fundamental.. They lowered the piston in the campaign, but today they reaffirm that they will continue to act in their own way, in substance and form. In part, in this they coincide with Alberto Garzón, federal coordinator of the IU, who the previous week demanded before his own “strengthening a greater differentiation with respect to the PSOE”, “reinforcing unique attributes” to neutralize calls for useful voting such as those promoted by Pedro Sánchez for these general elections. Garzón, yes, does not place his party under the fire of the second vice president, nor do the rest of the forces, except for Belarra's party. And they have also had to assume important resignations —although not explicit vetoes of their first swords—.

Izquierda Unida has five deputies within the platform —the same as Podemos—, and the acting head of Consumption, who is not among them, was trying to set the course in the face of the dilemma that the bloc faces today, after a 28-M that crystallized in the “collapse” of United We Can, and some generals who caught them in the middle of the “perfect storm”. The seconds deny the greatest.

The parties, according to Monedero, “have to stop, question themselves, know where they are and decide which way to go.” The left must be coordinated to be useful in the Government. That what they have to say to each other, they say it looking into each other's eyes. And that the citizens draw their conclusions”, abounds in the text. “I am convinced that, after the summer, the leadership of Podemos is going to convene a citizen conference,” he assures El Confidencial.

Different sources from the executive acknowledge that they have contemplated this option, but do not clarify if they have already made decisions, or when they intend to materialize them.. Supposedly, the co-founder of Podemos is not asking for a party congress, but a forum in which the organization “debates” directly with its bases, but encourages the leadership to opt for a Citizen Assembly: “You should not be afraid because your task is celebrated and respected by the bulk of the militancy”, abounds.

He asks to reconsider everything: from the analysis of the result of 28-M, which the purples have never made public despite having been left out of parliaments such as Madrid or Valencia — “Podemos has his self-criticism pending after the debacle in those elections” — until the course adopted after the resignation of Pablo Iglesias, where “everything accelerated a lot”. Nor does he skimp on criticizing Díaz and the rest of the Sumar actors, and excuses Belarra's harshness after the results — “perhaps he could have expressed himself with more smiles, but there is accumulated pain”—. But he especially appeals to his own. And the “broad front” will not solidify.

The coalition parties maintain open wounds that they have not wanted to air to date —except for Podemos—, there is concern about the path to follow in the months in which they aspire to revalidate the coalition government and, in the case of the purple ones, there is anger and uncertainty due to the unknowns pending. Díaz herself brandished before them the debacle that United We Can experience in the regional and municipal elections to counter their criticism, but so far the purples have only demanded “self-criticism” from the space leader. Most of Sumar's allies claim to ignore the darts of Iglesias or Belarra and point out that the party would have been wiped off the map if it had not come under the umbrella of Sumar.

In addition to questioning the actions of the media —Belarra herself did it to ask for money for Iglesias television again—, the purples have spent these weeks remembering the veto of Irene Montero, and reproaching Díaz for not marking a greater distance with the PSOE. It also made him ugly for having “renounced” feminism and “made invisible” Podemos and for not waging the cultural battle against the right.

Cadena Ser cancels Ágora, one of the few radio and TV programs where plural voices could be heard. After years of media siege, the strategy of power to silence @PODEMOS is evident. It's time to support @CanalRed_TV with more strength than ever.

— Ione Belarra (@ionebelarra) July 28, 2023

In Garzón's report before the Federal Coordinator of his party, the leader himself praised Díaz for adopting “a more belligerent tone against Feijóo and Abascal”, which, in his opinion, helped Sumar grow in the final stretch of the campaign. When Díaz began to hit Alberto Núñez Feijóo for his photograph with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado, purple territorial and state leaders celebrated this turn, which IU had already claimed before starting the campaign. On this point, again, they agreed. They share several postulates, but they put the accent exactly on those that distinguish them from the rest of the forces within Sumar.

The leader of the space, for her part, has not given many clues as to how she will clear up the many unknowns about the future of what until now she considered “an instrumental party”. They still do not have a constituted leadership, there are no official deliberative bodies, which will not be ready to address decisions such as the composition of the leadership and the distribution of tasks in the new parliamentary group.

Shortly after the constitution of this group, and while they try to guarantee the investiture of Sánchez —Iglesias warns that they will demand primaries if there is an electoral repetition—, the left to the left of the PSOE has an enormous amount of pending tasks. Among them, to clarify if Sumar will continue to allow double militancy, something that its provisional statutes include, and that clashes with those of Podemos.

In this, again, there are differences: Monedero also claims these primaries, but also advocates the constitution of Sumar's decision-making bodies as soon as possible. There has been no amnesty and the purples are not considered dead, but there has been no self-criticism either. Neither in Sumar nor in Podemos, because Garzón did acknowledge the “collapse” of his political space on 28-M, although he stressed that they had endured the pull in places where they did not run alongside Podemos. The parties under this umbrella have gained time, but they still have many battles ahead. Together and separately, facing their respective organizations.