The social democratic platform Third Spain, with former members of Cs and UPyD, will try to compete in the European elections
The idea was born half a year ago in a Starbucks in the center of Madrid, but it did not crystallize until this summer, when 23-J left the center injured and forced the two big parties to look between their extremes to govern.. Some forty intellectuals and former politicians, most of them from Cs and UPyD, plan the creation of a new party, left-wing, reformist and social democratic, whose central axis is equality between Spaniards, dialogue and compliance with the Constitution, even recognizing that It is “modifiable”.
The Third Spain, which is the name given to the association for now, is constituting its structure and, according to several of its members, it is seriously considering taking the step as a political party in view of the European elections in the middle of next year.. “We seek to create a clean left, comparable to the American, the German, the Nordic,” explains the writer and journalist Gabriela Bustelo, formerly of Cs and one of the main ideologues of this “party project”, together with the lawyer Elvira Marcos -also former of Cs-, the writer Iñaki Ezkerra and the economist and historian Gabriel Tortella. The manifesto has also been signed by Andrés Trapiello, Francisco Igea, Fernando Savater and Francisco Sosa Wagner, among others.
Tortella, in conversation with this newspaper, defines La Tercera España as “a sliver of optimism” in the midst of an “alarm situation”. The economist, who was part of the university socialist group during the dictatorship, considers that the “role” of this new formation is exactly the same as “that of the PSOE of 40 years ago”: to assemble all sensitivities into an idea of European Spain and away from populism. Would Nicolás Redondo or Alfonso Guerra fit, then? “They fit,” says Tortella, because “they prove to be brave.”
The founding manifesto of La Tercera España, in fact, is truly harsh on Pedro Sánchez's PSOE: “It has thrown its secular ideology overboard, betting on the paths of populism, personalism, opportunism and demagogy”. Meanwhile, he accuses Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP of being adrift and disoriented, of being “indecisive” and of joining its future to Vox.
In a Spain in which the two large blocks, precisely, edge their positions towards the corners of the board, La Tercera España was born with the objective, in addition to recomposing the space of the center-left and recovering the millions of voters who were orphaned without the option of Citizens at the polls. But they warn: “We are not related to Ciudadanos despite sharing political principles”. This party, they emphasize, is neither a continuation nor an alternative to the liberal project that the oranges defended in recent times.
“At the moment, a reformist left, aware of Spain and focused on the future, seems absent from the political scene.. A left that once again rejects privileges and defends the first and essential equality: the equality of Spaniards before the law. A left of harmony that defends the need to look outward, at Europe, at the world,” concludes the presentation letter of La Tercera España to define its principles.
These are, among others, guaranteeing the separation of powers, “reducing the advantages of politicians”, minimizing the benefits of “anti-constitutional” parties, the market economy, solving the “prejudices” against private enterprise or ending the ” “hypertrophy” of ministries.
After its public announcement, La Tercera España is in the process of establishing its structure and its members will decide in the coming weeks how and when the party will be launched.. The most important idea at the moment is to attend the European elections. Not an easy task since several parties are trying to articulate options that represent the center in these elections.. In fact, Ciudadanos' objective is to run again for this call.