Yolanda Díaz calls Belarra and launches the thaw with Podemos for an express pact

Yolanda Díaz has spent almost a year simmering her new political project. What if a tour of Spain to “listen”, what if a participatory process to elaborate “a country project for the next decade”, what if dialogues with multiple bands to bring positions closer and unite the thousand and one pieces of the left in Spain. All that plan to go one step at a time has now been blown up because, suddenly, the advance of the elections forces him to run at full speed. Pedro Sánchez's movement forces Sumar and Podemos to declare a truce, cease hostilities and sit down to negotiate immediately to go together on July 23.

It's a race against the clock because they barely have time to argue. It must be an express agreement because the term to obtain it and register the coalition ends in 10 days. Exactly on June 9 at 11:59 p.m.. And it would not only be an agreement between Sumar and Podemos, but also about fifteen left-wing parties are involved that are called to come together in this candidacy for the generals and that the majority already made an appearance in Magariños, when the vice president announced her step forward.

The leader of Sumar has taken on the “challenge” of uniting the entire left and to demonstrate it, she was the first to get involved yesterday to achieve it. Díaz telephoned the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, in the morning to unfreeze the relationship with the purple formation and to open a new phase of negotiation to seek the “unity” of the entire political space located to the left of the PSOE , sources familiar with that talk report.

Until now, the communication and negotiation channel between Sumar and Podemos had taken place at a second level. Specifically, between Díaz's chief of staff, Josep Vendrell – an experienced politician who comes from ICV and who was a deputy in Congress with the commons – and the secretary of the Podemos Organization, Lilith Verstrynge. They were the ones who talked and exchanged proposals months and weeks before the Magariños act. Until it was impossible to reach an agreement for Podemos to agree to be present at the announcement of Díaz's candidacy.. He was the only and great absentee that day, because all the other parties interested in the confluence with Sumar attended with a high representation.

Díaz and Belarra caused the thaw yesterday after Sánchez's announcement to guarantee the best of wills to agree. Now the negotiations will fall back on the most technical teams. In the specific case of Sumar and Podemos, they are led by Vendrell and Verstrynge. But here we must also count on the participation of those responsible elected by the other formations, especially Izquierda Unida and the comunes, who are Díaz's main political supporters in the construction of the new project.

Vendrell already began yesterday a round of talks with “all” the other parties to lay the foundations for the frantic dialogue that is coming for the next few days, where all kinds of meetings will have to be held to move forward.

Despite the requirement set by the deadlines for registering the coalitions, in Sumar they point out that there is “a lot of advanced work” from the previous months, when Vendrell and his team discussed conversations with the fifteen parties involved. This work, it was emphasized at the time, was the one that led to everyone except Podemos being present at the Magariños event. Sources from some of those parties assured then that they went to the Madrid sports center without having closed any specific agreement with Sumar. A response that replied to Podemos, which spread the statement that if they went it is because they had everything agreed. And that is why they also wanted to close their agreement.

In this it is true that all of them except Podemos manifest an unequivocal attitude to come together. We can depend on how. That is the difference that until now has prevented a pact. Basically it is summed up in what should be the distribution of “power” between the different forces. In other words, how the positions on the electoral lists will go, the governance of the coalition, the distribution of money and the quota of attendees per party.

primaries

These discrepancies seem doomed to be resolved in primaries. At least, it is what Podemos demands, which believes that its weight should be decided by supporters of space and not by a union of the rest of the formations to take away its preponderant role.. The absence of a commitment to an “open primary” has been to date the excuse used by Podemos for not closing a commitment with Díaz.

Due to the dates, it seems impossible to organize primaries with fifteen parties in less than 10 days, but there is more room to reach the deadline for registering the electoral lists on time (June 19).. Which is when you actually have to distribute the positions. The key is in the will. There are parties more enthusiastic about the celebration than others. Of course, it would not be a simple procedure, since a new census has to be compulsorily made. This implies that people register to vote and then agree on verification mechanisms to avoid fraud. Only the cell phone number? Also the ID card? Those steps involve time. And time is what is not to spare.

Diaz’s first reaction yesterday, after the debacle was to get involved in unity. “The message received last night was very clear: we have to do things differently. Without distractions,” he said. He declared that “from this very moment” he starts working for it. Later, and after her talk, Belarra affirmed that Podemos “is going to be where it always has been: working for unity”. For its part, IU emphasized that Sumar and Díaz are “the best opportunity” and said that “only from the sum of political organizations and civil society” it will be possible to build an “exciting” project.