The spokesman for Podemos in Congress, Pablo Echenique, has acknowledged that his exclusion and that of Irene Montero in the Sumar lists for the general elections “has been externally imposed” due to the “explicit vetoes” of the team led by Yolanda DÃaz.
“In this negotiation there have been explicit vetoes with first and last names, such as the one that has been perpetrated against the Minister of Equality, but there have also been indirect vetoes,” he said in a statement that he shared on his Twitter profile. Montero has responded to Echenique with a “boss I love you very much”.
In this sense, he explains “Sumar’s negotiating team made it clear from day one that it was absolutely impossible” for him to head the list in the province of Zaragoza. “It was the only position for which it made sense for me to run and the only seat with a chance of leaving in Aragon on July 23,” he stressed.
He stressed that the blow that Sumar wanted to give Podemos “has been very hard” but he believes that his party’s decision to accept the union is the “correct” decision, despite the fact that it is the “most difficult moment.” “I think that our decision to guarantee, despite this, the electoral agreement as the only way that there is a minimum possibility for the PP not to govern with Vox after 23J is, once again, the correct decision,” he explained. .
Echenique affirms that he is “very proud” of having played a “tiny” role in the formation of the first coalition government since the second republic. In this sense, he highlights the “numerous” social advances that they have developed, such as the Euthanasia Law, the Animal Protection Law, the increase in the minimum wage, taxes on banks and large fortunes, as well as the Housing Law or the Law of ‘only yes is yes’, among others.
“There have been hours and hours of negotiation with the most diverse progressive and multinational majority groups that have ever existed and it has been an honor for me every time I have spoken from the rostrum,” he added.
Regarding the rostrum in Congress, Echenique regrets not having managed to adapt the space to people with disabilities. “I take a little thorn. Surely, if the first parliamentary spokesman in history in a wheelchair had been from the PSOE or PP, instead of being from Podemos, the thing would have been resolved in five minutes,” he criticized.
Finally, he asks Podemos voters “not to throw in the towel” because they cannot afford the “luxury of not fighting.” “We have no other option. For this reason, I am going to continue putting all my work, time, effort and commitment to support the best direction that Podemos has ever had – with Ione Belarra at the head -. I ask you to accompany me because I continue with the same desire as the first day to democratically seize power from that privileged 1 percent who run the country without running for election,” he says.
“If I have learned anything on this trip, it is that the two grossest lies in politics are that ‘everyone is the same’ and that ‘it cannot be done'”, he has sentenced.
