End of the campaign between two waters of Díaz: disarms Podemos where it suffers the most and is examined with Colau
Yolanda Díaz puts an end to a truly special campaign today in Barcelona. And it has been so because the leader of Sumar has lived the last 16 days balancing to satisfy the main political forces that she aspires to bring together under the umbrella of Sumar in her candidacy for the general elections.. Despite this eagerness to share out, the gestures of support for Más Madrid in the Community and the City Council and for Compromís in the city of Valencia have disarmed Podemos where, precisely, it is suffering the most because it has tough competition. Although, in contrast, the vice president was forcefully involved in coming to the rescue of the purple candidacy for the Valencian Community.
This campaign between two waters has felt especially bad in Valencia, where the municipal candidate of United We Can, Pilar Lima, left visibly upset when Díaz asked for the vote in front of her so that Joan Ribó, from Compromís, be re-elected mayor of Valencia. This leaves him in a critical situation two days before the vote, because that call for a useful vote derails the entire message he has tried to build.
For Compromís, that Díaz decided to stop juggling to throw himself into Ribó without complexes is not a mere nod to who was a friend of his father in CCOO. In the mayor's environment it is clear that the balance can be decided by a handful of votes, and points to what actually happened in 2019. Ribó remained as mayor because the sum of Compromís and PSOE surpassed the right-wing bloc by 355 votes.
Yolanda Díaz hugs Joan Ribó, Compromís candidate for Mayor of Valencia.
Therefore, the reading that is made now is that, given the prospect of another adjusted result and with Podemos out of the City Council according to all the polls, “the only option is to concentrate the vote so as not to lose any”. At least, if the left aspires to resist at the head of the Valencian capital for the third legislature.
Yesterday he asked for the vote for Ribó in front of the United Podemos candidate
Díaz asks to vote for Compromís in Valencia but a day before he called to do it for United We Can in the regional elections. Where, there yes, he urged to “concentrate the vote” in Héctor Illueca to, with that, get the Botànic Pact to continue for another four years. It was an accolade in a strategic place for Podemos. A gesture that has not been made in the other place highlighted in red: the Community of Madrid.
There Díaz, without in any case asking for the vote for a certain political force, played to distribute affection and take pictures with the candidates but the leader of Sumar showed a harmony and a predilection for Más Madrid that irritated the purple ones. Well, they also row against the current in the region and in the capital to raise their heads and achieve a representation that continues to be at risk. Especially in the city.
It was at the San Isidro festivities where the balance of the balance was overwhelmingly defeated by Mónica García and Rita Maestre, who received very explicit support with gestures although without words. That also came from the echoes of an interview in La Sexta where he hinted that his vote would be for Más Madrid. An interpretation that they also made within Podemos. With the consequent anger with her.
Iglesias attacks Más Madrid and Carmena for their “cowardice”
Faced with the exercise of tightrope walking in these and other places, Díaz gets off the cable and steps on solid ground in Catalonia, where support for Ada Colau is being so committed and resounding that it seems that she herself is part of the candidacy in Barcelona. The icon of this involvement is the photo that was taken last Saturday in which the leader of Sumar hugs the mayoress from behind and with great affection. Although it could well be another one as well, the one of the two posing with a Díaz dressed in the t-shirt-motto of the commons of “Colau is to blame for everything”, which replaces the name by crossing out Yoko Ono.
Colau's results will also be read as Díaz's own, although Sumar's sources avoid making that interpretation, arguing that her involvement is such because of the project she embodies and because of her figure, but not because she has turned her into Sumar's first electoral experiment.
With his appearance today in Barcelona, where he will go to close the campaign to give the mayor the last push, there will be three appearances together these weeks. Plus a fourth time he went with the commoners to another rally. In the previous months Díaz was on two other occasions.
This end of the tour, risky since Colau's re-election is up in the air, contrasts with the needs that Podemos reveals. The purple party is relying on Iglesias, who yesterday in Madrid and today in Valencia came to the rescue. In yesterday’s rally he took out the artillery against Más Madrid, with attacks on that “comfortable left” for power, and against Manuela Carmena, whom he presented submissive. “Cowardice is assured defeat,” he said, to contrast with a brave Podemos that he claimed “essential” for changes to occur.