The mountain gave birth to a mouse. The agonizing wait to resolve the integration of Podemos a Sumar – punctuated by a grassroots plebiscite, registration of a new party and a requiem for Irene Montero – was resolved yesterday, when the general secretary, Ione Belarra, announced that the lilacs they would be integrated into Sumar, so they handed over the head of the Minister of Equality.
But the narrative arc of Poncio Pilatos was fulfilled up to the washing of hands: the general secretary assured that it was “Yolanda DÃaz’s team” who vetoed Montero’s presence and, with the yes in front, asked arnica to the vice president for a “fair deal”. It didn’t work, the negotiation was exhausted, and the fate of Podemos was sealed.
The strange announcement of the surrender of Podemos – which introduced even more melodrama to the merger operation, and discouraged the vote – made transparent, at bottom, the enormous internal conflict of Podemos, between the mandate of integration of the territorial directorates (state citizen council) and the resistance of the executive (coordinating council) to sign the agreement without guaranteeing the political future of its main leaders.
During the negotiation, as usual, there were cross vetoes, since Podemos tried until the last moment that its deputy Txema Guijarro, distanced from the leadership of the party for many months, was not on any list.
Although Belarra assured that Sumar’s offer could leave Podemos “out of the Congress of Deputies”, the truth is that the lilacs have at least 13 first places in other constituencies, in addition to the fourth for Barcelona and the fifth for Madrid in the lists for in the generals, a fact that should guarantee, in the worst case, seven events for the lilacs.
Podemos said at noon that he was waiting for a new offer from Sumar to rectify the exclusion of Montero so as not to have to “wait until the last minute”, but neither of the two things happened: there was no new offer and the signature was made around eight in the evening.
After half past nine at night, “the most important agreement between progressive and green forces in the history of Spanish democracy” was recorded, they reported from the Sumar platform, which brings together almost all the state’s left-wing formations and territorial: Moviment Sumar, IU, Podemos, More Madrid, More Country, CompromÃs, Aliança Verda, Equo, More for Mallorca, More for Menorca, Batxarre, Project Drago, Chunta Aragonesista, Esquerra Asturiana and Initiative of the Andalusian People.
Among the deputies of Podemos who have a confirmed place of departure, the leader Ione Belarra will be number five for Madrid; the organizing secretary, Lilith Verstrynge, number four for Barcelona; MEP Idoia Villanueva, number one for Navarre; deputy Javier Sánchez Serna, for Murcia; deputy Pilar Garrido, for Guipuzkoa; Roberto Uriarte, for Ãlava; Noemà Santana, for Las Palmas, and Martina Velarde, for Granada.
Despite the dramatic staging of the general secretary of Podemos at noon, after receiving the support of 93% of those registered who voted in the consultation – more than 52,000 militants – to resolve the negotiation, there was no further movement between the negotiating teams and the agreement remained at the terms in which Belarra had promised his signature.
Sumar explained in a press release that the agreement “is a reflection of the effort and generosity of political forces very different from each other and constitutes the first step to build an exciting, feminist and winning project that always puts justice social and climate at the center, with the world of work inside”. The wording confirms the nature of the new labor platform that DÃaz has wanted to imprint on the project since the “listening process” began.
The doubt, in any case, is whether the firm will manage to close the wounds that have existed throughout the process, from the challenge launched by the management of Podemos at the last Universitat de Tardor to the dramatic sacrifice of Irene Montero staged this on Friday for Belarra, through the insubordination of Podemos to the rest of the members of Sumar at the event of April 2 in Magariños.
In any case, the resolution was facilitated by the extraordinary weakness of Podemos after the elections of 28-M.
The moment and the way in which Podemos has finally agreed to the integration – with an emotional requiem, yesterday, of its main political assets on social networks for the departure of Irene Montero – casts doubt on whether the alliance will operate the massive mobilization of the left vote that the polls predicted for Sumar months ago, before this long, ill-focused and agonizing tug-of-war, which has landed with damaged wings, where it had been expected for two years.
