After the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, the negotiations to configure the next coalition Government are rushing forward. The last conversation will be held between the general secretary of the PSOE and Yolanda Díaz, leader of Sumar, expectedly between this Friday and Saturday, according to government sources. In addition to the distribution of portfolios and the names of the ministers, there are many details related to the structure of each department (secretariats of State, general directorates…) still to be finalized. All sources indicate that the announcements will be made at the end of this week.
Yolanda Díaz is clear about the profile of the future leaders of each ministry and, according to sources close to her, she has tried to combine management experience with her representativeness in a political space in full configuration, which houses 16 parties and has yet to celebrate its first assembly. The organic integration of the parties that participated in the electoral platform on 23-J also depends on these first negotiations and on how Díaz manages to combine the balances in the distribution. The hard core of Podemos, which assumes that it will not be in the future Executive, has intensified its strategy against the second vice president.
The scenarios are multiple and the drawing has changed several times. But the leader of Sumar starts from the premise that her group will assume five portfolios, the same number as the last legislature. If Pedro Sánchez, who has the final say, confirms that figure, Díaz’s coalition will revalidate the vice presidency of Labor and the Ministry of Social Rights. And, instead of Equality, Universities and Consumer Affairs – the other three portfolios that he held until now – he will foreseeably take on Health, Culture and a newly created portfolio: Children and Youth. Sources from the parties that make up Sumar assume that the Minister of Health will be Mónica García, an anesthetist by profession and current spokesperson for Más Madrid; and that the Ministry of Culture will be directed by Ernest Urtasun, MEP of Catalunya en Comú and spokesperson for Sumar.
The vice president’s team does not hide that she will repeat in Labor. A good part of Sumar’s flags during the campaign were economic in nature and linked to the world of work. The main one, the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours per week, the point of greatest friction during the negotiations for the programmatic agreement with the PSOE. Among the coalition’s bets are also protecting the increase in the minimum wage or the development of the intern status. However, the ministry aspires to expand its powers, adding some secretariat of State. The 2030 Agenda, of a transversal nature, began, for example, the legislature depending on a vice presidency (the one held by Pablo Iglesias in Social Rights) and its fit into the future Government has not yet been decided.
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Both Más Madrid and other Sumar parties take for granted the departure of Mónica García to head the Ministry of Health. Two sources from Más Madrid clarify, however, that there are still pending issues that could frustrate the operation. García’s departure would mean an earthquake in the Madrid Autonomous Assembly. First, because she could be accompanied by a second march towards the ministry, that of also a doctor and deputy Javier Padilla. Second, because it would leave the Chamber without the politics that has personified the opposition to the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP). And third, because it would leave open ground for Juan Lobato, the regional leader of the PSOE, to try to recover the hegemony of the left in that community.
García’s departure, which would coincide with the congress being held by Más Madrid this week, would open a new time in the training. For starters, he would force a new parliamentary spokesperson to be found to lead the opposition. “She will be a woman,” they say in the party, although the decision has not yet been made.
The PSOE will foreseeably recover the Ministry of Equality, directed until now by Irene Montero, and in exchange Sumar will take over the Culture portfolio, which was now held by the socialist Miquel Iceta. Ernest Urtasun is the person chosen for the position, as confirmed by Catalunya en Comú sources. The MEP, economist and diplomat, is a person of Díaz’s utmost confidence. He has worked in Brussels since 2014.
Sumar will foreseeably retain the Social Rights portfolio, from which it has promoted in recent years a shock plan in the dependency system and in which it aspires to deepen more personalized attention. The name for its owner has not been finalized, although the current Secretary of State of the ministry, Nacho Álvarez, also the economic head of Podemos, is one of the profiles that best fits the position, according to the sources consulted. Although he has always enjoyed the trust of Ione Belarra’s organization, in recent times Podemos has cooled its relationship with him when he understands that he is no longer acting on his behalf in the negotiations entrusted to him by the vice president (the last one, for the agreement of program with the PSOE).
The role reserved for Podemos, which in the last two days has once again charged against Díaz, threatening to act on its own in Congress, has yet to be defined. “There is still time to rectify and for this possible veto of Podemos in the Government to be corrected,” Belarra asked in the Congress courtyard this Thursday, after denouncing that the PSOE prefers “a docile left.” Nacho Álvarez’s profile, in any case, is not the only one being considered: there are other options, such as that of the former deputy and former coordinator of Podemos in the European Parliament, Pablo Bustinduy.
If the five-department scheme for Sumar is confirmed, the fifth will foreseeably be the new Ministry of Children and Youth, in which the coalition is studying integrating Consumer powers. Díaz’s formation has directed a good part of its speech since its birth to the younger sector of the population, and on Wednesday, during the investiture debate, the vice president dedicated to the problems of this sector (particularly affected by precariousness, low prices housing or mental health risks) a notable part of their intervention.
Izquierda Unida is the party called to occupy this portfolio. The organization already confirmed this week the name of MEP Sira Rego as the option to lead it. Rego, number two in the party of the outgoing Consumer Minister, Alberto Garzón, is vice president of the Left group in the European Parliament.
Nothing is closed and the last decision is made by Pedro Sánchez, who is studying a smaller ministerial structure for the new legislature. The five departments would allow Díaz to distribute play between the parties with which he aspires to consolidate the relationship within Sumar in the coming months. In addition to the process of forming the organization, vital for its future viability, the coalition must prepare the lists for the European elections next June. Podemos has already hinted that they are considering an independent candidacy that would compete directly with Sumar’s electorate. And before that, the battle for regional elections will also begin in Galicia and the Basque Country.
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