Podemos steps on the accelerator at the start of the electoral year, raises its tone against the large distributors and the “wild” right, and puffs up what it has achieved on its ninth anniversary. The party’s general secretary, Ione Belarra, has set the objective this Saturday in Zaragoza of becoming the “majority force” in the greatest number of governments possible, a complex goal in a scenario still marked by high inflation that climbed to all-time highs in August . Her formation, which last Monday urged the PSOE to put a limit on the prices of the basic food basket, has raised the pressure on the Socialists and has charged against the large distributors. “It is indecent that they are making gold at the expense of the economic crisis,” she pointed out.
The also Minister of Social Rights has vindicated the action of Podemos in an act before some 200 people and together with other members of the party, such as the parliamentary spokesman for UP, Pablo Echenique, or the candidate for the presidency of Aragon and current Minister of Science Maru Diaz. The meeting is part of the tour undertaken before the regional and municipal elections in May to vindicate its role as the “engine” of the changes in recent years and its usefulness in the institutions. Although the alliance with Izquierda Unida is complicated in the community —one of the territories in which both formations have always competed separately— Podemos aspires to revalidate its presence in the Government of Aragon, which in this legislature gave birth to a quadripartite presided over by the socialist Javier Lambán and that includes Chunta and PAR.
Without being self-critical, Belarra has described the party’s service record since its inception as “impressive” and has vindicated the measures promoted in the Government, such as the increase in the minimum wage (“the most protective for the people”) in the department of Yolanda Díaz, or the limitation of the price of gas. Podemos has chosen Zaragoza to celebrate its ninth anniversary, very far from the Teatro del Barrio de Lavapiés (Madrid) where on January 17, 2014 it presented the manifesto Move Tab. In this square, as Echenique has recalled, it was where the former secretary general, Pablo Iglesias, organized his first act.
The birthday comes amid tensions within the left due to the reconfiguration of the space with the platform led by Vice President Díaz and the uncertainty about the participation of the formation in the new project. Since the end of the year, the leadership of Podemos has accentuated in its speech the commitment to unity, for which they blame the head of Labor, and has gone so far as to point out that the best candidate will be the one that “guarantees” it. The formation has been urging Díaz for months to define as soon as possible if she will be the candidate for the presidency in the general elections and she advocates an electoral alliance with Sumar, the brand she promotes. The matter has been left out of the interventions this Saturday.
Podemos has multiplied its actions at the beginning of an eminently electoral year, also accentuating its social proposals. If last Saturday he presented one of the star measures for the upcoming elections, a guaranteed monthly income of between 700 and 1,400 euros, on Monday he distanced himself from the PSOE and Díaz herself, demanding intervention in the food market. “We cannot ask the people of our country to feed their sons and daughters what they can afford and not what they think is best. It is indecent that the large distribution companies in Spain, that supermarkets like Mercadona or Carrefour are making gold at the expense of the economic crisis derived from the war in Ukraine”, Belarra defended before charging Juan Roig, executive director of Mercadona, whom he has branded as a “ruthless capitalist”. “We have to stop their feet,” he urged.
Belarra has asked to go further in feminist policies —compared to the protocol for pregnant women in Castilla y León—, to approve “now” the housing law —in process in Congress for almost a year— or to change the majorities to renew the General Council of the Judiciary. The minister has also criticized the “wild” right-wingers of PP and Vox for the blockade of Justice. “We are going to continue to see a resurgence of the coup strategy”, she has stated in reference to the decision of the Constitutional Court to prevent the reform of the method of election of its magistrates from being voted in the Senate.
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Regarding the electoral cycle that is beginning, the minister has advocated continuing to work collectively to increase the presence of the organization in the institutions. “Our objective is to be the majority force in the greatest number of governments possible,” Belarra has sentenced. In a climate of alliances still to be established in a good part of the territories and with the right wing rising in the polls, the party is playing to revalidate up to six regional governments (Navarra, La Rioja, Aragón, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands) and the continuity of its more than 500 councilors throughout Spain.
Echenique rejects the “OTANist war rage”
The parliamentary spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Pablo Echenique, reiterated this Saturday his rejection of sending military material to Ukraine. “We can say in the Congress of Deputies that we are not going to participate in the NATO war rage and that we are against heating up the invasion of Ukraine with more and more weapons to continue feeding the warlords”, the deputy stated when eleven months are about to pass since the outbreak of the conflict. Precisely this Thursday, a group of nine NATO member countries —Estonia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia— promised to make new “unprecedented” arms shipments to the Government of Volodimir Zelensky. Germany, for the moment, has demanded more time and refuses to hand over its modern main battle tanks.
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