We can tighten the rope, but it does not break it. And Sumar avoids the collision and the rag does not enter. The attitude of the five Podemos deputies, once their party has been left out of the Government, will be one of the many headaches that await Pedro Sánchez’s Executive in this legislature. The general secretary of the party, Ione Belarra, insisted this Thursday that from now on they will act in Congress with “total political and parliamentary autonomy”, which does not mean that their immediate plans include moving to the Mixed Group. The Sumar leadership assures that they are not going to take any measure that pushes those from Belarra to break with the coalition in which they participated in the last elections.
After the outcome of the formation of the Government, the differences between the party founded by Pablo Iglesias and the platform of Yolanda Díaz already seem irreconcilable. Sumar has also established the certainty that Podemos will run alone in the European elections next spring. Nobody considers a reconciliation viable, but at the same time nobody wants to appear responsible for the definitive breakup. And neither party is willing to take steps, at least in the short term, to break the parliamentary group in Congress.
Podemos not only denies that he is thinking about joining the Mixed Group, but also slips in the idea that it is Sumar’s address that could show him the door. Belarra had dropped it on Wednesday in an interview on TVE and he returned with it this Thursday in an appearance before the press in Congress: “Just as Sánchez has thrown us out of the Government, I do not rule out that they throw us out of the Sumar parliamentary group.” The group’s spokesperson, Marta Lois, denied it publicly and sources from the group confirmed it privately: “It seems that that is what they are looking for, but they are not going to see it.”
Belarra insisted on her thesis that, with the departure of Podemos, the Government has been left without a “transformative left.” And his purpose from now on is to “use political autonomy” to “promote” these transformative measures and “recover the political strength that Podemos had” in the past.
How far can this exercise of autonomy go? Party officials assure that their five votes will have to be negotiated separately from Sumar’s and that their support for the Government’s measures, including the next Budget, cannot be taken for granted without prior dialogue. Sources from the party emphasize, in any case, that their main way of differentiating themselves will be by publicly criticizing the actions of the Executive with which they are dissatisfied. Belarra had demonstrated this with actions in recent days and reiterated it this Thursday by maintaining that Pedro Sánchez’s trip to Israel as acting president of the European Council has only served to “whitewash” the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Podemos’s claim to autonomy runs into some obstacles. Sumar’s management excluded them from the group’s deputy spokespersons, which has deprived them of an accredited signature to be able to present initiatives on their own or support those of the left-wing nationalist groups, ERC, EH Bildu and BNG, with which they agree. often in their positions. Sumar sources also assure that in the Podemos accession agreements, the Belarra party committed to remaining within the joint parliamentary group. In exchange, he will receive an allocation of close to two million euros, the same sources point out. If he went to the Mixed Group, he would have a freer hand politically, although he would have to distribute time and resources with BNG, the Canarian Coalition and the Navarro People’s Union (UPN).
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Sumar’s internal regulations are still being negotiated among all its groups. The sources consulted assume that it will include measures to safeguard internal discipline with a sanctions regime. But the imposition of strict voting discipline as in the large parties is practically impossible in a conglomerate of so many different formations. Compromís, for example, has already guaranteed in the previous agreements that it will have freedom of action in matters that fully affect the Valencian Community. In the previous legislature, within the Unidas Podemos group, voting differences were occasionally recorded by the Catalans of En Comú and Izquierda Unida.
In the same press room of Congress where Belarra had left her notices an hour before, Sumar’s parliamentary spokesperson, without entering into the direct clash, dedicated some reproach to Podemos. Marta Lois called on her deputies to respect internal “cohesion” and wondered “what do they mean by being part of the group” if they are suggesting that they could vote freely on certain issues. Lois pointed out that it is within the group where Podemos must present its positions, because there they will “negotiate, discuss and agree.”
The only thing that Sumar and Podemos seem to agree on is their willingness not to force a breakup. The rest is unknown: how far those from Belarra are willing to go and how far those from Díaz are willing to tolerate dissent. And, also, if the PSOE will accept Podemos as a separate interlocutor. The question was raised this Thursday to the socialist spokesperson. Patxi López almost ran away.
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