Sumar takes the hard blow from the Errejón scandal and faces his assembly at the worst moment of the game

The forced resignation of Íñigo Errejón as parliamentary spokesperson and Sumar’s position has not been the straw that broke the camel’s back because the container that serves as a metaphor for the situation of the party was already overflowing.

Since the 23J elections, Yolanda Díaz’s people have had very little good news in a context marked by intense wear in a very short time.

These elections relaunched the vice president’s project, since although they did not obtain good results (they lost votes and seats compared to the last Unidas Podemos candidacy), they achieved the objective of obtaining a sufficient number of seats to be able to reissue a coalition government with the PSOE to avoid an Executive governed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal.

Since that moment, a cascade of political coups (capped off with the Íñigo Errejón scandal) has brought the party to a critical moment in the midst of an unfavorable inertia characterized by legislative paralysis of the legislature.

Sumar has failed in all the elections of the electoral cycle that began in Galicia to the point that in the last appointment with the polls, the European one, Yolanda Díaz resigned from her organic responsibilities, at the same time she buried the aspiration of raising his project as umbrella of the left alternative.

A project that transcends its visible faces

At that time, Movimiento Sumar (the party created for this purpose) was forced to change course and appoint a temporary leadership with an eye toward an assembly that would give a new horizon to the project, after the failure of its initial objectives. That assembly will be held on December 14 and 15.

With the backpack of electoral failures on their backs, absent of an organic leader and with more uncertainties than certainties, the party hoped to clear its future and set new objectives in this conclave. The resignation of Íñigo Errejón means the umpteenth blow (in this case, of critical impact) on a path towards that assembly that already seemed to be tortuous before the resignation of the parliamentary spokesperson.

From the party they state that they accept the blow and the wear and tear that this is causing them, and that, despite being aware from the beginning of the process that led to Errejón’s resignation, Díaz had no doubts at the time of execution (after two investigationsone within Movimiento Sumar, and another by Más Madrid).

This Saturday, Sumar has insisted that they did not know before this week the accusations of sexist violence against Íñigo Errejón and has admitted that the party’s mechanisms in relation to this “failed.” It has also advanced that they will enable support and accompaniment mechanisms for the victims, as well as the implementation of a protocol for action on sexist behavior and harassment, which was approved in its first assembly in March but which has not been consolidated by the last one. electoral cycle.

Ernest Urtasunspokesperson for the party, has reported that at the beginning of this week it was when they learned of testimonies about the former deputy’s behavior, to which they acted “with all speed” first demanding explanations. At that moment, as he has reported, Errejón recognizes the facts and, immediately afterwards, Sumar demands that he be held accountable and that he abandon all political positions. He has also explained that the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, spoke with him and demanded his resignation, something that was formalized on Thursday.

Errejón accumulated a lot of power in a short time in space with his role in Congress and in Movimiento Sumar

The objective now, they explain, is to reinforce Sumar as a long-term project that is positioned above their leadership and most visible faces. “We are the first organization that has acted on issues of sexist violence, although the figure was the main one, and we hope that, at least, this sets a precedent in institutional policy,” the organization explains.

However, in recent days numerous voices have been emerging that wonder how Errejón became such a transcendental figure and accumulate so much power in such a short time in the project led by Díaz.

The political leader entered the Sumar lists as a quota for Más Madrid, after the negotiation that those of Díaz and those of Monica Garcia maintained in the summer of last year for 23J. From the Madrid formation they promoted an internal investigation as a result of the complaints spread and asked Díaz to demand the minutes; and the Minister of Health has acknowledged that “unfortunately” they did not know how to do “enough” in this case.

Since the elections, Errejón was winning in Sumar until he was appointed by the Díaz leadership as parliamentary spokesperson for the group in Congress and in charge of preparing the political document that includes the ideological foundations of Movimiento Sumar.

A new spokesperson in Congress

Now, the organization’s intention is to fill the gaps left by this resignation sooner rather than later (appointing a new spokesperson in Congress and commissioning the development of the political document facing the assembly to another leader of Movimiento Sumar).

Although the replacement in Parliament is not clear that it can be done so urgently, since Díaz’s team must reach an agreement with the rest of the formations of the group.

Maíllo: “We must face a catharsis of how we organize ourselves on the left”

The federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maílloreferred this Friday to the Errejón scandal as a “very painful case” because “it opens a channel to the left when it comes to people facing the contradictions between the political theses they defend and their own behaviors.”

Maíllo has asked “radical surgery” to political organizations and has left a reflection on the future of space: “We must come out of this strong and with a lot of honesty in personal reflection. There is a situation of certain discouragement and it must be resolved well, putting the cards on the table with all the conditions and without limits. “We must face a catharsis of how we organize ourselves on the left.”