Commotion in the world of political environmentalism. Juantxo López Uralde, until now a deputy in the United We Can parliamentary group, has been vetoed by Yolanda Díaz in the preparation of the lists for Congress, according to sources that have followed this negotiation.
The formation of Juantxo López de Uralde, founder of Equo and now the leading figure of Alianza Verde, has remained faithful to the alliance he signed with the party of Pablo Iglesias and Irene Montero until the last moment, which in the end would have been the trigger of Sumar’s decision to remove it from the lists that have been negotiated.
Various sources agree that the fact that the environmentalist current represented by Juantxo Lopez de Uralde has maintained its loyalty to Podemos has meant that this historic environmentalist leader has been dragged by the same will to veto that Sumar imposes on Podemos leaders, especially one of its greatest figures, Irene Montero.
Juantxo Lopez de Uralde began his career at Greenpace, and was the founder of Equo, a formation that allied with Podemos in the last general elections, which allowed him to obtain parliamentary representation.
However, this formation was an indirect victim of the internal division in Podemos. In the context of the traumatic break between Íñigo Errejón and Pablo Iglesias, Equo preferred to ally himself in 2019 with Más Madrid (believing that this would facilitate his candidacy, in a Madrid key) while López Ugalde created Alianza Verde and maintained his relationship with Podemos.
Alianza Verde has maintained its good harmony with Pablo Iglesias by interpreting that this was the best option to maintain the influence of environmentalism.
“Political environmentalism has never reached the level of influence like the one it has had with Pablo Iglesias,” say sources who are familiar with this situation.
The same sources indicate that Yolanda Díaz’s lists may mean a setback for environmentalism, since the other Equo leaders will not occupy prominent positions either.
They interpret that Yolanda Díaz has been elevated to the vice presidency by the hand of Podemos, so this “ruthlessness” makes no sense with all that this party has contributed, among other things the alliance with Equo and later with Alianza Verde, and the assumption of a good part of the ecological ideology
Juantxo Lopez de Uralde aspired to occupy a seat for Álava where he obtained his representation. This is a constituency where political representation is very difficult for these left-wing formations (due to the strength of Bildu), which is why various sources agree that it will be very difficult for Sumar’s party to achieve an act by doing without a popular figure and with a recognized trajectory such as López de Uralde.
It so happened that López de Uralde was a consensus candidate for the left-wing and environmentalist formations that came together in the Basque Country (Podemos, Izquierda Unida, Alianza Verde and Equo), while disappearing as headliner complicates the representation of the left and the environmentalist world. The decision to “impose from Madrid” a head of the Podemos list has not gone down well in the Vitoria matches.
Friends and people close to Juantxo López de Ugalde feel “shocked” by this decision by Sumar, taking into account -they affirm- the important task carried out by the deputy. “It is a tragedy that a valuable person, who has carried out a great job, and is a great connoisseur of environmental issues, disappears from Congress,” a personal friend of López Uralde told this newspaper, while the deputy preferred not to make statements.
López Uralde has been president of the commission of the Congress of Ecological Transition, in which some of the outstanding laws of this legislature have been approved, such as the Climate Change Law, the Waste Law or the law that wants to guarantee the rights of the Sea Minor, among others. His intervention made it possible to incorporate into the law the provision of including a system of deposit and return of containers to the trade if the community objectives are not met, or the prohibition of certain toxic substances attached to plastics.
