The purples cling to the Government despite the discrepancies with the PSOE while Díaz freezes his project and Iglesias tries to protect him
Although the legislature is just over two years old, so many things have happened that it may not be remembered how there was a time when United We Can almost savored every discrepancy with the PSOE in the Government. Under the baton of Pablo Iglesias, the purples insisted on accentuating the differences with their partners, either for purely ideological reasons or even because of the level of “democratic quality” in Spain. Those were times when Ione Belarra bluntly pointed to Margarita Robles as Vox’s “favorite minister”.
A year ago now, Iglesias officially left the Executive to aspire to preside over the Community of Madrid and left the leadership of the purple wing in the hands of Yolanda Díaz. Twelve months in which there have also been episodes of tension, yes, especially in this last month and before with the labor reform, but the management of the discrepancy has been different. There is something of substance and form in it. The current vice president has printed a less harsh style in relations with the socialists, but also in Podemos they have had to lower the decibels on more than one occasion for fear of an irreversible electoral disaster.
Under that pressure, their dilemmas only become more acute. And it is that the margin to deepen the internal divergences is exhausted before a scenario of rupture of the coalition of incalculable consequences for its interests. It’s time to bite the bullet. A clear example was the speed, in just 24 hours, in rectifying the allusion to the PSOE as a “war party” in the midst of a dispute over the direct shipment of weapons to the Ukrainian resistance. And this despite the fact that the war and also the Western Sahara are issues that fully affect the DNA of Podemos and the tradition of the Spanish left.
In the purple sphere they recognize that Pedro Sánchez takes advantage of their weak situation. “It rains on wet, his dynamic has always been to make us invisible,” explain sources close to the management. In some sectors, the suspicion is even spreading that the socialist leader is preparing the ground to justify an early election that catches Díaz off guard, who has now paralyzed his “listening process” to focus on the government’s response to the crisis, and also the PP, which he would put in front of the Vox mirror as soon as he proclaimed Alberto Núñez Feijóo leader.
The pressure on Podemos is maximum and, in turn, it is automatically derived to the figure of the second vice president, her greatest asset, perhaps the only one, to save the furniture in the next elections. In Belarra’s party, the slowness with which Díaz is developing the long-awaited “broad front” -now directly paralyzed to top it off- due to the sensation of interim that this projects generates exasperation. Although they are also aware that the Minister of Labor feels at times “overwhelmed” in the face of the great expectations that have been placed on her.
complex cohabitation
In this intricate mission, in addition, Díaz has the permanent shadow of Iglesias, who a year after leaving the Government and subsequently abandoning active politics, is reluctant to leave the media spotlight. The former vice president continues to have the ability to monopolize the limelight with statements that seek to set the course of his party, such as when last Monday he recommended his colleagues not to trust Sánchez because, with his experience, he warns that “there is nothing more unwise”.
Despite the fact that it was he himself who pointed to Díaz as a presidential candidate, the founder of Podemos has also wanted to mark the step in the design of his political project. After the trigger in the elections in Castilla y León, where United We Can won a single seat after a campaign in which the vice president remained in the background, he reminded her that “it is not enough” to arm that “broad front.” The complex cohabitation between both leaders, he without finishing leaving and she without finishing arriving, is another of the obstacles in this marathon towards political survival.
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