In a day full of confusing messages, with the last negotiations in the face of a dog and after days of uncertainty, Sumar and Podemos sealed the coalition late this Friday afternoon to run together in the general elections of 23-J. It is an agreement that seeks to optimize the vote of the left in a scenario in which the polls point to a strong growth of the right. The confluence led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz encompasses 16 formations, including Izquierda Unida, Compromís and Más Madrid, but also the party of Ione Belarra, which according to the signed agreement, will go number five for Madrid on a list where the Equality Minister, Irene Montero, nor the UP parliamentary spokesman, Pablo Echenique. The party insists that it does not accept the “veto” to its number two and that it still has room to negotiate its inclusion until June 19, the deadline for registration, but Sumar considers the talks closed to avoid the wear and tear that prolonging them would entail 10 more days.
“This is the broadest and most plural agreement reached in the entire democratic stage in Spain between progressive and green forces,” reads the coalition statement. The pact signed and accepted by the leadership of Podemos contemplates leading the ballots for Navarra (the MEP Idoia Villanueva), Gipuzkoa (Pilar Garrido), Granada (Martina Velarde), Murcia (Javier Sánchez Serna), Las Palmas (Noemi Santana) and Álava ( Roberto Uriarte) and gives the formation number five for Madrid (Ione Belarra) and four for Barcelona (Lilith Verstrynge). In the case of the capital, Díaz will in all probability be head of the list and will reserve number two for him, while three and four are for Más Madrid and Más País (Íñigo Errejón will go fourth).
The coalition is finally made up of more than fifteen groups: Movimiento Sumar, Podemos, Izquierda Unida, Catalunya en Comú, Más Madrid, Más País, Compromís, Chunta Aragonesista, Més per Mallorca, Més per Menorca, Verdes Equo, Alianza Verde, Batzarre, Drago Project, Asturian Left and Andalusian People’s Initiative.
The day was dramatic at times. The leadership of Podemos announced shortly before two in the afternoon this Friday that it would run with Sumar in the general elections on July 23, but, at the same time, it flatly rejected all the terms of the agreement proposed by the negotiating team of the vice president, thus opening a public battle over the conditions of that confluence.
The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, explained in an appearance without journalists at the party headquarters that the decision to run in the elections in coalition with Sumar had been “taken”, and that the signature of her party on the document that was registered this Friday presenting that coalition in the Electoral Board was “guaranteed”. But she, at the same time, said that the leadership of Podemos did not accept the “veto” to the presence of Irene Montero on the electoral lists nor the positions offered on those lists by Díaz’s negotiating team; some positions that Podemos sees as insufficient because, according to her analysis, they could leave the party out of the Congress of Deputies the next legislature.
What affects the most is what happens closer. To not miss anything, subscribe.
subscribe
Sources from Sumar immediately responded that the presence of Podemos in the candidacies is “widely guaranteed” and that they “did not accept” that the formation of Belarra take them “to the stage of Andalusia.” They alluded to the very tough negotiation between the leftist formations that took place before the Andalusian elections of 2022 and that led to a struggle of such caliber that the pact finally reached outside the legal term and the coalition could not formally include Podemos. “The coalition will register this afternoon,” warned these sources from Sumar, as has finally been done.
“We will run in the general elections with Sumar, that decision has been made,” declared Belarra, to then make an amendment to the entire offer presented by Díaz, even opening fire against the vice president’s negotiating team. “We have been told that the presence of Irene Montero is an insurmountable obstacle to reaching an agreement. It deeply saddens me that Yolanda, through her team, proposes that the coalition electoral agreement be built on the exclusion of a colleague who has taken feminist transformations further than anyone before,” Belarra defended in a very harsh tone, before interpret that Sumar’s request means “sacrificing” the “main political asset” of Podemos.
The Minister of Equality, according to the party leader, intervened in the Podemos Executive to “make herself available” to the formation and “do what is necessary, however unfair it may be, to ensure unity”, something that the leadership rejected. “We do not accept any veto as part of the negotiation,” Belarra insisted. The general secretary’s statement came after the express consultation with the party’s militants granted, with 92.92% of the support, full powers to the Executive to decide on the agreement. Party sources reiterate that the commitment to unity “is firm”, but that there are days left to negotiate and reformulate the internal pact, something that is ruled out on the other side.
Alberto Garzón: “Sorry for the noise. Nobody deserves this”
Shortly after Belarra’s intervention, the federal coordinator of the United Left, Alberto Garzón, announced his party’s agreement with Sumar and, in a statement, apologized for the entire public dispute. “I want to apologize to the public for the noise caused in this process. Nobody deserves this, and from IU we are convinced that things can be done in a different and much better way”, he affirmed. The Minister of Consumption assures that the IU has guaranteed the presence of deputies in the future parliamentary group, and that these “will work autonomously and in coordination” with the rest of the deputies. IU will head the Sumar lists in most of the Andalusian provinces, but renounces having a starting position in Madrid ahead of the general elections on 23-J. According to the agreement, the formation will be number nine in the constituency that grants the most deputies to Congress (37), but it will have the head of the list in Córdoba, Málaga, Huelva and Jaén, while in Seville and Cádiz they will go as second. The number two of the organization, Sira Rego, has decided to take a step back and give up going on the lists for Madrid. “Our formation has the largest organizational extension and institutional presence of all those that make up the space, and this will be essential in the future of the left,” Garzón puffs out his chest in his statement.
“The plurality of Sumar is the plurality of the country and we want to make it a sign of identity of this electoral coalition, which constitutes the main alternative for progressive citizens to regain hope,” defends Sumar in a note in which he celebrates the pact achieved, after 10 very intense days, less than a month after the start of the campaign.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
#Sumar #seals #coalition #fifteen #parties #including #Podemos #Montero