Yolanda Díaz signs Pablo Bustinduy, an errejonista leader of the first Podemos, for the Sumar campaign team

Yolanda Díaz adds intellectual muscle to her candidacy. The leader of Sumar has signed Pablo Bustinduy to her campaign team, who was the leader of the first Podemos and who was also one of the most prominent leaders of the current led by Íñigo Errejón before the internal rupture.

Bustinduy thus returns to the political front line after a time in which he has worked as a researcher at the University of Milan. Sources from Sumar have announced that it is part of the team that will direct the campaign, so in principle it would not have to go on the electoral lists.

Respected by all sectors of Podemos for his intellectual stature, Bustinduy is an expert in international politics. In fact, he had that secretariat within the leadership of Podemos when the party began to expand its relations with other European and Latin American formations.

For the 2019 European elections he was going to be the candidate of Unidas Podemos, however, the mass march of the errejonista sector that gave birth to Más Madrid made his situation untenable personally and politically and he chose to leave the formation.

Bustinduy was part of the list of university professors who filled the leadership of Podemos, where the five founders, who met at the Complutense University, stood out mainly: Pablo Iglesias, Íñigo Errejón, Juan Carlos Monedero, Carolina Bescansa and Luis Alegre. In addition to them, there were other figures from the academic world such as Gemma Ubasart

Throughout his career, Bustinduy was a professor of international relations, political science, and philosophy at Columbia University, New York University, and the City College of New York.. In addition, he was part of the Podemos delegation in the European Parliament after its irruption in 2014.

Yolanda Díaz has expressed her “pride” for having him “in the transformation that we are going to face”. “Calm, certainties and rights. The country is waiting for us,” said the leader of Sumar.

From Podemos, the co-spokesperson for the leadership, Isa Serra, has highlighted Bustinduy as a “valuable” person for the space on the left and has congratulated Sumar, since he has “enormous recognition” and “experience” in the international arena.

Meanwhile, the federal coordinator of IU, Alberto Garzón, has highlighted that it is one of the “best furnished and most lucid heads of the Spanish political scene”. “Their interventions in parliament were memorable and for this they obtained unanimous recognition. It is great news that he joins Sumar's campaign team,” he said.