A worker from the Ministry of Equality leaves the building adorned with rainbow flags. It is not too hot at noon on calle Alcalá, in Madrid. It's Friday. The asphalt is soft. The man, dressed in a dark uniform, lights a cigarillo in a sliver of shadow. The brown wax of twisted tobacco drips with ash. “Irene Montero? Irene Montero is not here. She is on vacation. That's what they say in the ministry. Your security colleagues can help you better,” she resolves. Security colleagues do not give more information. Although the chief of staff of the still minister assures that she is not on vacation – “she continues to go to the ministry” -, in United We Can also talk about the days off that Montero has taken since the general elections on Sunday until, at least, on August 1.
On Tuesday he will lead the crisis meeting called to analyze the latest “sexist murders” together with representatives of the autonomous communities, Interior and Justice. 30 women have died from gender violence in 2023. On Friday the last victim was counted, a 26-year-old woman. Some voices comment on the intensity with which Montero has experienced the electoral campaign. angry. Sad. Or both things at the same time. Some whispers indicate that his closest circle has advised him to disconnect for a few days. The environment does not confirm it. He establishes a parapet, speaks of normality, warns that everything is going well in the last post of the long political funeral of Irene Montero. A sanitary cordon is deployed around it in which both Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz participate.. Nobody wants to know anything about her. Her days as a minister are numbered.
Irene Montero had the face of few friends at the last Council of Ministers, held after the victorious defeat of the PSOE in the general elections of 23-J. All the faces reflected the euphoria experienced since the end of the scrutiny, except his. Ione Belarra, who will occupy a seat in the Congress of Deputies, accompanied him in the condolences that hung on his face.
“I am unable to see right now what Yolanda Díaz can do with Irene Montero. It is also unknown what role Ione Belarra will play. If you are going to be in the parliamentary group or if you are going to be in the Government. If there is an investiture, the new government will not want to suffer the contradictions and tensions caused by Podemos in the last three and a half years. That is not going to happen,” says a Socialist deputy close to the Prime Minister. “It will be up to Yolanda Díaz to manage it. We do not know the terms of the agreement. Depends on how you form the alliances. In the case of Montero, everything seems to indicate that she will not repeat as minister. They didn't even count on her as an electoral claim.”
The Organic Law for the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, known as the Law of yes is yes, was the turning point in his mandate in Equality. Politics conceived as a factory of tension soon chronicled Irene Montero in the controversy. The approach was related to the way of being in the institutions exercised by Pablo Echenique, who was spokesman for Podemos until 2019, secretary of the party's Program, and already a former deputy. They maintained a constant level, the line that will mark in the future how far certain politicians have reached in this frontier new age.
Montero accused the Popular Party of “promoting rape culture”, labeled the judiciary as “macho” and “impartial”, landed in Mediaset to support Rocío Carrasco, sided with Juana Rivas, sponsored the Institute's campaign of Women valued at 84,000 euros whose design turned out to be a potpourri of stolen images and the number of sexual offenders released through the loophole opened by legislative errors of yes is yes reaches 1,155 this month. 1,155 nails in the coffin of his political career. For this reason, Pedro Sánchez, at the beginning of the campaign, struck down his aspirations in the Onda Cero interview. “There is the impression that there is a citizen, a man between 40 and 50 years old, who has seen on some occasions that some speeches have been uncomfortable for them.”
“She is a good minister”
Ramón Espinar has a different opinion. “I think that Irene Montero has done a good job. She has been a good minister. She has only had the serious and notorious mistake of the law of yes is yes. Irene Montero's problem is her management as an apparatchik. She has been the executing arm of the “consecutive and incessant expulsions, abandonments, resignations and removal of many people from Podemos. This role as a sideshow for Podemos has made it difficult for him to coexist with other left-wing actors in a wide space,” he says in reference to Sumar.
Nor does he agree with those who consider Montero's position during the campaign elegant. “No. On the contrary. He has established a strategy in Podemos of permanent confrontation. has boycotted it. It's deeply serious. I already see movements in Podemos and I have heard comments along the lines of using the five deputies to negotiate its continuity “. With the scrutiny still hot, Ione Belarra was the first to open fire on Yolanda Díaz. “The objective of what remains of training is to achieve the continuity of Montero. That's what Podemos has been.”
Yolanda Díaz and Irene Montero, at the El Mundo Congress
The residents of La Navata, the Galapagar urbanization where the Montero-Iglesias family lives, have seen the founder of Podemos and the head of Equality during the campaign “make a normal life”. Before they were seen more. by the supermarket. Taking the dog to the vet. Then, a few weeks ago, they reappeared. Here nobody bothers you. They live in peace”, several neighbors consulted by Crónica agree.
A deputy from the purple party, who prefers to remain anonymous, does not believe that the electorate is watching over his political corpse. “Funeral? I would say that the media and political right has subjected Montero to public torture. What has made a dent in her has been the persecution, that ordeal. The adversary has a lot of media power. He is not going to leave politics. The relevant leaders of the country always have moments when they occupy rearguard positions. I would not speak of their political death.”
Surviving means finding accommodation in a very small party “made in its image and likeness.” Meanwhile, he is dying.