How Podemos and IU consummated the "blow up" of the Andalusian left with the unconstitutional help of Parliament

The purge orchestrated by Podemos and Izquierda Unida against Teresa Rodríguez and eight other deputies of the Andalusian left in the fall of 2020 found unexpected allies of convenience in the rest of the parties in the Autonomous Chamber. Due to circumstances unrelated to the internal war that broke out in the parliamentary group of Adelante Andalucía (where IU and Podemos were then integrated), both the PSOE and Ciudadanos, and also – although to a lesser extent – the PP and Vox. It was convenient for them to tie up the most disruptive deputies in the legislature, which ended up forging into an unnatural alliance that, with the alibi of the fight against transfuguism, curtailed the constitutional rights of the retaliated parliamentarians and of the voters to whom represented, as the Constitutional Court ruled this week.

The Adelante Andalucía deputy José Ignacio García defined this Wednesday the operation as a “blasting of the Andalusian left”, orchestrated by Podemos and Izquierda Unida to get rid of Teresa Rodríguez, with the interested complicity of the rest of the groups in the Chamber .

That operation not only served to take away the rights of nine deputies (two more also subsequently left the group of origin voluntarily) but has left a trail of alleged unconstitutionality in the express reform of Parliament that was carried out later to give power almost absolute to the leadership of the parties in the control of the parliamentary groups.

From the “friendly” breakup to the purge

The leadership of Podemos, still in the hands of Pablo Iglesias, was urged to take control of the organization in Andalusia in 2020 after the departure of Teresa Rodríguez, who had been its leader and electoral reference until then.. Although the breakup was initially presented in a “friendly” manner, internal tensions soon came to light, given that the main source of financing for political parties comes from the aid received by parliamentary groups.. Teresa Rodríguez continued to control the Parliament's subsidy, which had to be distributed proportionally with the deputies of Izquierda Unida (6), then also integrated into the Adelante Andalucía group.. In total, the group had 2 million euros per year for hiring personnel and financing operating expenses.

In parallel, the unrest grew due to the belligerent attitude of Teresa Rodríguez's deputies against the coalition pact that Unidas Podemos had signed with Pedro Sánchez's PSOE.. It was therefore imperative for IU and Podemos to also intervene in the content of the messages.. The war for money and control of social networks became public that summer and broke out when the parliamentary group's deputy spokesperson, Inmaculada Nieto (IU), temporarily took over the reins during Teresa Rodríguez's maternity leave.. Nieto launched the expulsion maneuver, raising the following argument in a letter addressed to the Parliament Board: If Teresa Rodríguez had left Podemos without leaving her record as a deputy, she had to be treated as a turncoat, which is why she was expelled from the group. parliamentary. Hers and that of eight more deputies who were also no longer in Podemos.

The Parliament Bureau completed the expulsion despite the many doubts that the operation raised (throughout the process, with more than one vote, the PP ended up abstaining and others voted out of obedience to the leadership of their party and made it known) and despite the fact that the lawyers issued several reports warning of the possible violation of constitutional rights, in addition to its difficult fit in the Regulations of Parliament.

The party that showed the most interest in the expulsion, apart from IU, was the PSOE, which saw in Teresa Rodríguez a threat to the image of the coalition government that had just been born, since the Cádiz deputy had always reneged on the pacts with the socialists. “We are not going to be the crutch of the PSOE's old age,” the leader of Adelante had repeated ad nauseam.. The Andalusian PSOE knew that if the main party to its left continued to be led by the leader of the Anticapitalists, it would never find in it the ally it needed to regain power from the Junta of Andalusia.

It was then that work on a new version of the National Anti-Transfugal Pact was accelerated, redefining the profile of the turncoat so that the case of Teresa Rodríguez would fit that definition like a glove.

Ciudadanos contributed to this reinforcement of the control measures of the party apparatuses given that their debacle was beginning to be a reality and a rout of elected officials such as the one that subsequently occurred was feared.. We had to cut back on the discs and establish containment measures.

Dissident or transfugee

The document written by the parties signing the Antitransfuguism Pact practically equated the dissident with the transfugee. And this model of control of the party apparatus over the activity and means of the parliamentary groups was transferred to the Regulations of Parliament in an express reform that would serve to give legality to what had already been applied in a very summary manner to the deputies. of Teresa Rodríguez, stripping them of their rights as parliamentarians and condemning them to the category of “non-attached deputies” in the autonomous Chamber.

Curiously, the Popular Party has subsequently welcomed into its organization and placed dozens of Citizens' officials in institutional positions without the Anti-Transfuguism Pact that it helped to reinforce having represented any type of restriction.. In fact, Marta Bosquet, who presided over the Andalusian Parliament and, therefore, the Board that carried out the expulsion of the Adelante Andalucía deputies for turncoats, is today president of the Andalusian Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training, appointed by the Government of Juanma Moreno.

The Constitutional Court has admitted the appeal for protection presented by the nine deputies of Adelante Andalucía and considers that the expulsion violated their rights as elected representatives of the citizens, in addition to contravening the Rules of the Chamber. Among other issues, the TC recalls that there is jurisprudence that makes it clear that political parties are different entities from parliamentary groups and, therefore, the expulsion of a party is not enough for a forced separation of the parliamentary group to occur.. An identification that the reform of the regulations enshrined and, therefore, could be considered equally unconstitutional.

As is known, after a fight with IU and Podemos, Teresa Rodríguez managed to keep the Adelante Andalucía brand and ran again in the 2022 elections under those acronyms, obtaining two deputies.. After a few months, she left her record and returned to her teaching position at a secondary school in Cádiz.

They ask for the resignation of Inmaculada Nieto

Those who today represent Adelante Andalucía in the Andalusian Parliament are José Ignacio García and Maribel Mora, who this Wednesday asked Parliament for reparation for the deputies whose rights were “unfairly, undemocratically and illegally” curtailed. “They sought the civil death of Teresa Rodríguez and they did not even care that this meant the dismissal of 20 workers from the parliamentary group.”

José Ignacio García expressly requested the resignation of the IU deputy Inmaculada Nieto (today spokesperson for Por Andalucía), whom he considers the executor of the internal purge. “The spokesperson for Por Andalucía, Inmaculada Nieto, is politically disqualified and should resign because she was responsible for blowing up the Andalusian left,” he stated.

Teresa Rodríguez herself returned to Parliament to announce her intention to denounce the members of the Parliament Board who approved the expulsion against the criteria of Parliament's lawyers for prevarication.