Sánchez faces the legislature with Podemos' threat of unbalancing the majority

Of all the images that have been taken in the investiture debate of Congress, there is one that is very eloquent and that gives clues about the complexity that the future Government of Pedro Sánchez will face.. And we do not have to look outside, in the parliamentary allies, who have already warned that they will be very demanding. The bench shared by PSOE and Sumar has risen in full after confirming the re-election of the socialist leader, but there were four deputies from the coalition led by Yolanda Díaz who stayed seated while the rest of the left broke into applause.. They were the four from Podemos, Martina Velarde, Lilith Vestrynge, Javier Sánchez Serna and Noemí Santana.

The fifth is Ione Belarra, who occupied her seat on the blue bench of the Government, along with Irene Montero, who was not on the Sumar lists after the veto decreed by the leader of the formation.. A few hours earlier, the result of the consultation on the investiture called by the Belarra leadership was made public, which resulted in very high support for Sánchez's re-election.. And with the participation of more than 55,000 enrolled in the purple training. The massive endorsement of Sánchez has not been an obstacle for the leader of Podemos to have denounced that Díaz ignores the purple ones – “he hasn't called me since July” – and for Pablo Iglesias himself to have already taken the break with Sumar for granted. It is confirmed, as it seems, that yours will not be in the Government.

“Who can really put Podemos in the Government is Sánchez,” said a Sumar source a few days ago. He was thus referring to the possibility that the socialist leader intercedes for the purple ones to save himself a headache in a legislature in which the votes will be decided by very small margins.. The doubt will be resolved in the next few hours, although it is assumed that the decision on the magenta side of the cabinet remains in the hands of Yolanda Díaz. And in the published cabals there is no purple representative for the new Executive.

Iglesias is not the only one who already anticipates the possibility that Podemos and Sumar will go through a resounding divorce. The purple ones could leave the coalition, with the economic damage that this would entail, and join the Mixed Group. In the PSOE, they also talked about this possibility this Thursday and expressed that as long as this breakup does not occur, Ferraz's only interlocutor will be Yolanda Díaz, as organic leader of Sumar.. This information is not trivial if you take into account that Belarra showed her anger last Friday, when announcing the consultation, due to Sánchez's lack of response to her requests..

The discomfort within the coalition was not only present at the moment of applause for Sánchez, but also in how Belarra and Montero have quickly left the chamber. It is probably the last time that both use the blue chair of the Government.. Both were already protagonists on the first day of the debate, when Alberto Núñez Feijóo ironically about his presumed departure from the Executive. “Yes, you can,” said the Galician, who paraphrased the iconic slogan that the purples chant in their organic conclaves and rallies.. The holding of the Congress pointed at that moment to Montero, who stated with a gesture that ranged from resignation to mockery..

“What do we do with Podemos? Should we give it a ministry?” Feijóo joked.. But that is the question that must still be asked and, above all, the result of maintaining the veto. The five purple seats are key for the Government to carry out its legislative agenda, but in the purple leadership they do not feel appealed by the agreement reached between Yolanda Díaz and Pedro Sánchez at a programmatic level. The departure of Podemos from the coalition would force the Executive to add greater wear and tear to the negotiations to approve its laws, although it is true that the purple ones presented themselves under Sumar's electoral program and there should not be major programmatic differences..

The purple ones are not the only ones who have raised their voices about the way in which Yolanda Díaz is leading the coalition. Alberto Garzón already defended at the end of September that Sumar should move towards a formation more within a broad front, something that the acting vice president's team rejected. The organic conformation of the coalition still has to be forged, and that can be a distorting element for the new Government of Pedro Sánchez, who has once again shown harmony with Díaz in the two days of debate.