Podemos is reduced to five deputies in Sumar and Iglesias warns that they will be "very important to negotiate"

The result of Sumar gives birth to a highly renewed parliamentary group of 31 deputies in Congress, in which Podemos has been reduced to a minimum, with only five representatives. In comparison, they are half of those that the Sumar party has (10) and the same number that Izquierda Unida (IU) has.. This is the definitive confirmation of the loss of hegemony of the purples within the space and the end of the cycle that Pablo Iglesias led in 2019 and which yielded a balance of up to 23 seats in Podemos.

Pablo Iglesias will no longer be there and neither will Irene Montero, but Ione Belarra, the party's general secretary, and Lilith Verstrynge, organization secretary, have achieved their minutes. The two went up to the stage on Sunday night with Yolanda Díaz to appear after the results. Neither of them seconded the euphoria unleashed on that stage, where their serious faces contrasted with the smiles and joy that overflowed up there.. In fact, shortly after they left the coalition headquarters, on Calle Larra in Madrid, in a hurry, while the rest stayed celebrating with hugs and Catalan cava for almost another hour.. And then prolonging the party in a place in the city.

Of the 15 parties that make up Sumar's coalition, there are eight that have achieved representation in Congress. The distribution is as follows: 10 deputies from Sumar, five from Podemos, five from IU, five from communes, two from Más Madrid, two from Compromís, one from Més and one from La Chunta. But to this we must add a piece of information that is not anecdotal, because it is very symbolic due to the change in the internal cycle: in this mosaic there are seven deputies who have Communist Party (PCE) cards.. They are the five from IU and two more from the Sumar quota: the candidate, Yolanda Díaz, and the number one for Seville, Francisco Sierra.

Despite the evident loss of power of Podemos, Iglesias left a message on his television channel last night in which he warned that the five purple deputies are “essential” for there to be a sum that reissues the coalition government and claims its leadership. He stressed that “they are probably very important also when negotiating with the political forces that represent the plurinationality of the State”. In other words, ERC, EH Bildu and BNG but also Junts. “Hopefully everyone rises to the occasion with humility,” he finished, asking for that leading role.

The statements of the former secretary general cast more doubts than certainties about the behavior of these five deputies. The political agreement with which the coalition was signed commits the presence of all the parties within the same parliamentary group in Congress and subjects all of them to the discipline of the group's leadership. It is an armor with which Sumar wanted to protect himself from a possible split from Podemos once the elections were over, as EL MUNDO already reported.

It is true that formally there is no legal mechanism that can prevent the purple deputies from leaving for the Mixed Group, where they would be fully autonomous, because the minutes are individual and not of the candidacies, but that is why Sumar also established a clause whereby if that happens, Podemos would lose the substantial income to which it is entitled as a member of the coalition.. Which in your case is 23%. A lot if compared proportionally with the five seats it brings to the group.

loss of votes

Iglesias exposed his criticism of Díaz's result by also emphasizing in his speech on Canal Red that the political space had lost “almost 800,000 votes compared to the last elections and seven deputies”. He also stressed the “generosity” that Podemos had shown “when they humiliate you, veto you and mistreat you.”

As for the names, the five Podemos deputies are Belarra (number 5 for Madrid), Verstrynge (number four for Barcelona), Javier Sánchez Serna (Murcia), Martina Velarde (Granada) and Noemí Santana (Las Palmas).. Three other members of Podemos in “starting positions” did not take a seat, which are Pilar Garrido (Guipúzcoa), Idoia Villanueva (Navarra) and Guillermo Presa (Álava). All three are victims of the rise of EH Bildu, which Iglesias has been determined to promote for years. As with ERC.

As for Sumar, his 10 seats are those of Diaz, Agustin Santos and Carlos Martinez Urriza (Madrid); Francisco Sierra (Seville), Marta Lois (Pontevedra), Veronica Martinez (La Coruna), Rafael Cofiño (Asturias), Lander Martinez (Viscay), Txema Guijarro (Alicante) and Esther Gil (Cadiz).

For IU they get five deputy minutes: the secretary general of the PCE, Enrique Santiago (Córdoba), Toni Valero (Malaga), Engracia Rivera (Seville) and Nahuel González (Valencia). Félix Alonso (Tarragona) is a member of IU within the denomination of communes.

Precisely the Catalans will be in Congress Aina Vidal, as a new political reference; Gerardo Pisarello, Gala Pin, Eloi Badia and Júlia Boada.

For its part, Más Madrid places Tesh Sidi and Íñigo Errejón. While Compromís supports Águeda Mico and Alberto Ibáñez (Valencia); the Aragonese Junta to Jorge Pueyo (Zaragoza) and More to Vicenç Vidal (Baleares). The one who is finally left without a seat is Alberto Rodríguez, who leads in Tenerife as a share of his Drago party.