Nacho Álvarez leaves politics after Podemos's veto of Yolanda Díaz's offer to make him minister

The Secretary of State for Social Rights Nacho Álvarez, a member of the Podemos leadership although he has been in conflict with the party leadership for months, announced this Friday that he will leave politics to return to his position as a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

This morning, Yolanda Díaz had offered Podemos that Nacho Álvarez would be a minister in exchange for stopping the “attacks and insults” against Sumar, including the vice president.. In a letter sent this Friday to the purple party, the coalition that brought together 15 parties to the left of the PSOE to compete together in the 23-J elections has formalized an offer that includes the commitment to “establish a cordial relationship of cooperation with all space”, as eldiario.es has advanced and this newspaper has confirmed.

Through her Twitter account, Ione Belarra, general secretary of Podemos, has rejected it with the argument that “the formation of a Government is something very serious.”. “The possibilities of transforming our country and stopping the reactionary offensive depend on it.. In the democratic bloc we all need each other, without vetoes,” she warned on the aforementioned social network.

To which he added: “Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz have leaked the news at the same time as they communicated it to us, which seems more like a media strategy to justify kicking us out of the Government than a proposal to govern in a coalition.”

“Like the rest of the political formations, starting with the PSOE, Podemos's ministers are elected by Podemos. Podemos continues to think that the best thing it can contribute to the coalition government is to deepen the feminist transformations at the head of the Ministry of Equality,” Belarra insisted in reference to her demand that Irene Montero continue to be its representative in La Moncloa.

“Traitor”

Álvarez was Pablo Iglesias' trusted person in the first bicolor Government of democracy and, as number two in the Ministry of Social Rights, he agreed on several Budgets and the Minimum Living Income. Yolanda Díaz incorporated him into Sumar, where he has been in charge of negotiating the new agreement with the PSOE, although he is still Secretary of Economy of Podemos, where he is considered a “traitor.”

Sumar's offer is a maneuver focused on trying to negotiate the instability that Sánchez and Díaz know that having five autonomous deputies will generate from within.. That instability will not only come from its nationalist partners, but also from within with Podemos demanding that they also negotiate measures to enforce those five votes.

Furthermore, throughout the week the vice president has tried to claim the Ministry of Industry for her space and for the State Society of Industrial Participations (Sepi), currently attached to the Treasury, to depend on it.. That portfolio would be the one that the still Secretary of State for Social Rights could hold.

Podemos has reiterated on multiple occasions that ” Podemos's ministers are chosen by Podemos”. Also that if Sumar proposed Álvarez as a representative within his share of power in the coalition he would be “minister of Sumar and not of Podemos.”

“I WILL NOT ACCEPT”

Nacho Álvarez himself, in his farewell letter, has also confirmed the offer made by Yolanda Díaz, “but I am not going to accept being a minister in the next government if the leadership of my organization does not share or approve it.”. “In my political culture it is not acceptable to accept an institutional position outside the organization of which one is a part,” Álvarez has written.

The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has reacted to Álvarez's statement, ensuring that the news causes her “enormous sadness.”. ” Podemos does not deserve these stratagems that put our people at the feet of horses,” said the still Minister of Social Rights in clear reference to Yolanda Díaz.