Podem disappeared from the Corts Valencianes and from the majority of town councils in the Valencian Community in the regional and municipal elections in May. On June 19, its regional coordinator and candidate for mayor of Valencia, Pilar Lima, resigned and, a day later, the former candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, Héctor Illueca, did so. In eight years, Unides Podem had gone from 15% of the votes in a Valencian election (11.6% for Podem and 4.6% for Esquerra Unida, in 2015) to 3.6%, which left them out of Les Cortes.
One more piece of information, and no less significant, is that the coalition stopped receiving the 30,500 euros per month in subsidies that until the May elections it received from the regional Parliament and all its public officials left for the streets. There was also an ERE that – yes, with an agreement of 38 per year worked – served to fire the six employees who worked for the party.
Despite this scenario that has completely made invisible a party that conditioned the first laws of the Botànic and ended up leading a second vice presidency and the Department of Housing, Podem refuses to disappear. Last Saturday he organized a meeting with the militancy in the Botànic garden of Valencia – a metaphor for the power that Podem amassed.
A power that they refuse to lose. When talking about the future, its current leaders do not reject specific pacts or coalitions, but they do not even want to listen to talk of joining other platforms, movements or parties: “Joining others is not the idea,” they explain from the technical team that has taken over. the reins of what remains of the party until the celebration of the citizen assembly that must form the new leadership.
A manager with names like the current co-spokesperson of Podemos, María Teresa Pérez, the former secretary of organization of the party in the Valencian Community, Carles Fons, or the member of the State Citizen Council Pau Vivas. All of them people very close to the current state leadership. Precisely, María Teresa Pérez is the one who sounds the strongest to lead this new stage, although her entourage clarifies that she “has not decided yet.”
In this sense, one of the criticisms that are launched from critical sectors is the lack of renewal of faces and the lack of self-criticism after the electoral debacle. “Lima and Illueca resigned, but the same people responsible for the poor results remain,” explains a former senior official of the team. However, by his own admission, “who else is left?” He believes that municipal officials who achieved a good result could have been rewarded, but that they preferred to maintain control “of what little remains from Madrid.”
This leader has already resigned from his organic positions although he continues to pay the fees. The manager clarifies that they have not lost their influence and that there are still about 2,000 people who pay the fee monthly. However, there are other colleagues from the Ministry who have even embraced other projects and have participated in the general campaign of Yolanda Díaz. Now they are at an impasse, because, they admit, “Sumar does not exist as a party in the Valencian Community.”
“Whether it is Sumar, a reformulated Compromís or another platform, it should occupy the space that Podemos once had in politics,” since they understand that this formation that “shaken the traditional structures of the parties and the way of doing politics in Spain has, unfortunately, lost strength.”
A former leader tells how “Madrid’s game of thrones” and the refusal of the state leadership to consolidate “strong autonomous structures that could help the party overcome the ups and downs of politics” have ended up condemning the party to which he predicts a “bleak” future. ”.
They do not see it that way from the manager, who point out that the militancy has demonstrated its commitment to the project as demonstrated by the 200 people who attended the call of its general secretary, Ione Belarra, on Saturday. They consider that the training is not disappeared; In fact, they remember that “despite some headlines, the La Morada headquarters remains open and Podem pays its rent every month.”
Along these lines, they insist on the idea: “We need a strong Podem, which is capable of standing up to the PP and Vox like no one else is going to do so that in the next legislature the Valencians recover their progressive government.”
