It was an open secret, but Podemos has formally kicked off this Saturday her solo career towards the European Championships on June 9, with the figure of Irene Montero as the main asset. In an event at the Palacio de la Prensa in Madrid, which he began with irony to the rhythm of the song The living dead, of Peret, and His refrain “he wasn't dead, he was partying”, Ione Belarra's party has once again put the former Minister of Equality in the spotlight. She entrusts her entire rearmament strategy at an extremely complicated time for the party, less than two weeks after making her break with Sumar official, after being left out of the Government and with the territorial structure weakened. The general secretary has proposed her number two as a candidate, who must now undergo a primary process.
“Today I want to ask Irene Montero, if the militancy so decides, to be our candidate. There is no one better than you to help us get back on track with a brave, ambitious project that will advance Spain towards the future just as you have advanced our country in feminist policies,” Belarra told him towards the end of her speech in an explicit recognition of the delicate health of the organization. “I want to ask you to help us raise the flag of social justice, environmentalism and feminism. The flag of those who do not remain silent when it is difficult to speak, of those who do not give up when they defeat us,” she stressed. “I thank you for trusting me, today and always. And I answer yes. With the reasons and the hope intact, because everything must be changed, until all people have all their rights guaranteed, I will present myself to the Podemos primaries to be the candidate for the 2024 European elections,” the former minister has taken up the gauntlet. . In her speech, the leader has defended returning to “what is essential, what is important,” in addition to attacking the “hypocrisy and inaction” of social democracy on the continent, a direct criticism of her previous government partner.
Ten years after her emergence into politics in style precisely in a European election ( Podemos won five seats in 2014), the general secretary has also attacked the socialists and Sumar himself, claiming a “strong” left-wing group. and that “clearly defends peace, feminism” and an “alternative Europe to the war regime.” “We are very clear that we do not refer to ourselves in the political family of social-liberalism that both the Greens and the PSOE represent,” she pointed out. Although the party is going through a difficult time, the fact that in the June elections there is a single constituency facilitates representation.
The event, an attempt to gain muscle – some 600 people who had been queuing early have been left outside the auditorium due to lack of space, according to the organization – had been preceded by absolute secrecy since its announcement. After months of deteriorating relations, with intense attacks on Yolanda Díaz, Podemos made public on Tuesday last week her divorce from Sumar and her transfer to the Mixed Group in Congress. He then alleged that his five deputies had been left without any political capacity to exercise within the coalition: they lacked spokesperson and signature to present their own initiatives and had been denied full intervention until that date. Just 15 days before, his departure from the Government was also confirmed, where in the previous legislature the party headed two portfolios.
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The former head of Equality, now without public office and whom Díaz dispensed with in the 23-J lists after the severe crisis within the Cabinet due to the reductions in sentences and releases with the entry into force of the law of only yes is yes, had been Podemos's only bet to continue in the Executive. His management in the ministry, with important regulations such as trans or the abortion reform, caused some of the main conflicts with the partner and in some cases, the division of the feminist movement. But with years of experience in different organic and institutional positions (director of Pablo Iglesias' cabinet in Congress and parliamentary spokesperson after Íñigo Errejón was defenestrated for his confrontation with the leader in the party's second Citizen Assembly, Vistalegre II), the formation He considers her his main political asset.
“In Spain, as in Europe, we deserve more and we do not have to accept the decline in PP rights with Vox, nor the 'it can't' from the PSOE. If we have learned anything these years it is that it is possible. We need a strong left and a strong feminism, which does not accept silence,” the former minister has proclaimed. “We cannot remain silent in the face of reactionaries or in the face of social democracy's requests for silence. We are not here to be given a few crumbs of the power of bipartisanship in exchange for silence. We are here to change the rules of the game, to collaborate and negotiate, to build relationships of respect. Respect and be respected,” Montero defended, to much applause.
“Europe has a lot at stake in these elections. The anti-fascist and democratic pact that made Europe possible could be buried by a victory of the extreme right and the hypocrisy of the inaction of social democracy and the European right. Millions of people wonder what Europe is for if it is not capable of stopping Israel's genocide in Palestine, if LGTBI people cannot move freely within our borders. […] What good is Europe if the strength of our democracies and institutions does not stand up to the vultures and speculators who turn our rights into business? […]; if our immigration policies build walls and let thousands of people die before reaching our borders; if the institutions are not committed to the fight against racism; if we cannot protect the planet we inhabit because no one wants to assume the political and personal cost of confronting the interests of the large companies that pollute,” listed the number two of Podemos, who wore a kufiya, the Palestinian scarf.
“Spain needs a popular and transformative force that is not dedicated to modulating the demands of social movements, but rather works together with them. Even if it bothers the reactionaries,” Belarra had asked before. “The challenge is enormous, but we also assume it with enormous hope. Because it has been possible and it will be possible again,” he encouraged.
The shift in the party's strategy, which seeks to rearm itself and reconquer space hegemony from outside, occurs at a time of extreme weakness in the organization, which has assumed its own leader. “We have not arrived on time for territorial implementation,” she noted before referring to it as a “pending task.” The general secretary of Podemos has announced “in the coming days” the start of the process of renewal of the regional directorates. Five of its executives are in the hands of managers and the trickle of casualties has been a constant in recent times, particularly since the setback in the regional and municipal elections in May, in which Podemos lost five of the six governments of which it was a member. part and only preserves Navarra. This same week, the former candidate for mayor of Madrid, Roberto Sotomayor, announced his departure, along with the former regional representative and regional leader Carolina Alonso. The leadership of the party has also suffered several departures since the general elections (among them those of Alejandra Jacinto and Nacho Álvarez) and the party faces an ERE due to the reduction of resources after the loss of institutional power throughout the territory.
This Saturday's event fundamentally sought to inaugurate the new solo stage and represent “a before and after,” in the words of the management. The road to the European elections is long and first Podemos will probably have to face the regional elections in Galicia and perhaps in Euskadi. Precisely this Saturday, almost at the same time, Díaz presented his platform in A Coruña with an eye on the elections in the community. A litmus test for his project and where the left to the left of the BNG, which in 2016 became the first force of the opposition, are today extraparliamentary organizations and without a clear unity between them.
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