Revolt of territorial leaders of Podemos to agree with Sumar: "Whoever does not want unity has to step aside"
Drums of rebellion in Podemos. Several regional leaders of the purple party strongly press the national leadership to reach an agreement with Sumar because, otherwise, it would be “impressive irresponsibility”. The Community of Madrid, Extremadura and Navarra have been the first baronies to take a step forward and warn Ione Belarra and Irene Montero that “there is no other way” than the confluence with Yolanda Díaz. There are barely more than 48 hours left for the deadline to register the coalition and the ground of the purple party trembles under the feet of its dome
The coordinator of Podemos Extremadura, Irene de Miguel, has been resounding. “Those who do not want unity have to step aside and leave those of us who believe that unity is the way,” he said in statements to Canal Extremadura Radio, collected by Europa Press. In his speech, he stated that in the Autonomous Citizen Council of Podemos Extremadura there has been “absolute consensus” that “we must participate in the Sumar movement”.
For De Miguel “it does not enter into the equation that there is no agreement” and has indicated that for this to be achieved “everyone” has to lower their claims. “We all have to give in and I think we have to do it with generosity and also with humility”, he stated.
In this sense, he has recognized that it is necessary to “assume the results” that Podemos has had in the regional elections, in which it was practically wiped off the map. Extremadura and Navarra were the honorable exceptions of 28-M. Precisely, two of the regions that are most determined to promote a pact with Sumar. That is why Díaz campaigned in both with his candidates.
That is why it is no surprise that the coordinator of Podemos Navarra and regional candidate, Begoña Alfaro, was the other regional leader to raise her voice this Wednesday.. Just like she did in April when she expressed her support for Sumar when Díaz organized the Magariños event and when she herself defied the order of her party leadership by appearing in Madrid.
Alfaro has declared that it would be “an impressive irresponsibility if the agreement between Podemos and Sumar did not take place” and has put his community as an example of success in the confluence that was achieved for the elections. “In Navarra we have marked out a path and the results have proved us right”, he said. “We understand that this has to be the same path that is followed at the state level, and we trust that the negotiating teams of the different spaces that are immersed in this process are equally clear about it.”
The Navarrese leader of Podemos acknowledges that she is viewing the negotiations with “sorrow” and “frustration” and demands “strongly” that the “long-awaited” agreement be made “and done as soon as possible.”
The pressure from Extremadura and Navarra on the leadership of Podemos comes a few days after the regional coordinator, Jesús Santos, sent another message of discomfort from the Community of Madrid. “First the country and not the parties,” he said in a tweet last Friday in which he appealed to be “responsible”. The ruling party reacted with angry criticism against him and even the mother of Pablo Iglesias asked him to resign. “If you have decided to personally join Sumar, I think you should make your position available to Podemos,” he told him.
Likewise, there is another voice that appears in Madrid. That of the regional candidate, Alejandra Jacinto, who is also a member of the national leadership, who has called to “read what happened” in the May elections to find “the clues to write the future”. In a written reflection, you underlined the importance of unity. “Unity, not as a fetish, unity not only as a result, unity as a way of doing politics in common both inside and outside the institutions.”
From Galicia, the coordinator of Podemos, Borja San Ramón, has indicated that it is time for “generosity to add to the plural left of the State. “Agreeing is not resigning”, but “decidedly betting on what they have in common”, he said in statements to Europa Press.
Pressure movements have also been unleashed in the Valencian Community. There a group of charges and militants, mainly based in Alicante, has launched a manifesto to ask Podemos to join “in a broad confluence structured from Sumar”. In addition, they demand the immediate assumption of responsibilities for the “catastrophic” results there, in which Podemos was left out of the Courts and the Valencia City Council.
Add denies Iglesias
Meanwhile, the negotiations continue without recovering from the shocks of recent days. The recently appointed Sumar campaign spokesman, Ernest Urtasun, made his debut this Wednesday denying Iglesias and neutralizing the accusation that the former secretary general of Podemos launched against Díaz's partners of demanding to exclude the purple leaders from the electoral lists. Among them, Irene Montero. “I want to say it very clearly and all the organizations have said it: no veto is being considered,” he stressed, corroborating the versions of Más Madrid, common and Compromís. Precisely, Más Madrid has approved with 96.11% of votes in favor, in its plenary session held this afternoon, that the party “support Sumar and that the best conditions be negotiated from the Coordinating Team for the next general elections.”
Two days before the end of the legal term to register a coalition agreement between Sumar and fifteen left-wing parties, Urtasun wanted to convey a message of “optimism” in the face of the “noise” that has been generated in the last few hours and that It has triggered both the tension between the political formations involved and the concern among voters. Especially because of the problems that are having to agree with Podemos. “The talks are progressing at a good pace,” he said.. “I think we will not get to the last minute and we will be able to give good news shortly.”
This idea of suggesting that the alliance is close to closing has been stressed on up to two occasions. “We are optimistic about being able to give news very soon,” he also said at his debut as spokesperson for Sumar on a visit to the Doñana natural park, together with the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz. The deadline to register the coalition is Friday at 11:59 p.m., but Sumar would like to announce tomorrow at the latest.
Urtasun, who is the only one of the two who has spoken to the media about the open negotiations, has acknowledged that the “puzzle” of parties makes the dialogue “complex” but has stressed that the talks “are progressing well”.. “We are currently finalizing the agreement, talking to everyone and when the agreement is finalized we will present the best teams to go out and win the country,” he said.
Ione Belarra, before going on a visit as a minister. EFE
The new spokesperson, who has also intervened in La Sexta, has avoided entering into the “noise” generated around it but has insisted that there is “no kind of veto” on the table, but that they are trying to put together “ambitious candidacies” and no exclusions.
Contacts continue to be made at “all levels” with that will. In fact, agreements such as the one reached yesterday in the Canary Islands with Drago, Alberto Rodríguez's party, which officially joins the candidacy on the islands, are already being closed. Other forces such as the United Left (IU), Catalunya en Comú, the Communist Party (PCE) or Equo-Greens are about to make it official too. The doubt continues to be in Podemos, with whom there are more obstacles.
“We all share an objective: to give the electorate of the left the most successful and ambitious platform possible and that they go with all the enthusiasm to vote,” said Urtasun, who has refused to “settle into defeatism” and who has been urged to mobilize for ” win the country.”
We can break your silence
Many kilometers away from Huelva, in Madrid, the leadership of Podemos has broken its silence and has pressed for an agreement. “Podemos has been where it has always been, working for unity. And when there is news, we will send it to you,” said the party's general secretary, Ione Belarra, during a visit to a center that treats autism.
For his part, the spokesman for United We Can in Congress, Pablo Echenique, has considered in statements to journalists after the Permanent Deputation that the agreement “is going very late” and that “precious time to campaign” is being lost.
Regarding the vetoes denounced by Podemos, Echenique has once again fueled them. “I guess no matter what I say. It is enough to look at what the Sumar parties have said publicly, it is not necessary for me to say it,” he said, remarking that “it is clear what has happened regardless” of what he can declare in this regard.
IU: 1,700 councilors and key in Andalusia
In the open debate on how much each political force weighs when it comes to distributing the positions on the electoral lists, IU has puffed up its chest today in a statement about its results in the municipal elections of May 28, in which the organization “reaffirms as the main municipalist force of the transformative left” with 1,700 councilors. Making this map has been very complicated due to the number of candidacies of all kinds that existed (with agreements with different parties), and you had to go practically town by town to make the count.
Despite the very strong fall suffered by the candidacies led by Podemos in the regional elections, IU has achieved a similar number of municipal positions that it had in 2019, confirming that the territorial implantation of its party is the most powerful in this political space and that it has resisted much better the debacle of Podemos. It is a clear message for the open negotiations.
The IU has the most councilors in Andalusia (840), followed by Castilla y León with 149, Asturias with 123, and Castilla-La Mancha with 130. For this reason, the chances of IU achieving key positions on the 23-J lists in these territories are very high.
Díaz enhances his green speech
When Sumar, Podemos and the rest of the parties finish the negotiations, they will be able to fully enter the campaign. In any case, Díaz tries to get away from that noise and has tried to post political messages without wasting any more time.. During his visit to Doñana together with Urtasun, he has met with ecologists and affected farmers from this area of Huelva.
There he has erected Sumar as a candidacy in which the green axis is a hallmark. Díaz has stated that the debate today is “choosing between two models”: making Spain “a powerhouse of clean energy and generating decent jobs” or “the model of the desert that devastates farmers and causes them to lose jobs”. .
The leader of Sumar has attacked the PP, which she has accused of advocating “deepening into ecological crime” in Doñana. Thus, he has made an express appeal to Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, to sit down and talk with the environmental sectors, science, farmers, the Government and the European Commission to rethink their policies regarding Doñana. “The position of a rebellious right in front of the law is not tolerable neither in our country nor in Europe”, he has reproached.