Pablo Iglesias chose Yolanda DÃaz as his successor in the Government. She did it unilaterally, without consulting the victim herself, who was at a Spanish-French summit in Montauban at the time. Some Cabinet colleagues remember the upset face DÃaz made when she was informed of the news, which, by the way, was a great exclusive from our colleague Pedro VallÃn. Today we do not know if Iglesias regrets that decision, but the reality is that both have taken very divergent paths regarding the strategy for the future.
DÃaz will present his candidacy for the general elections today, which has the virtue of bringing together the entire space to the left of the PSOE. He has baptized it with the name of Sumar, but the formation founded by Iglesias, Podemos, will not be there because it demands preferential treatment in the preparation of the new platform. It will be strange that in today’s photo at the Magariños sports center there are all the confluences of this sector and Podemos is missing. Perhaps it is not the best decision of this party, which must face very complicated municipal elections this May according to all the polls.
There are still many months to go before the general elections in December and there is enough time to negotiate, but it would not be ruled out that Podemos could finally stay out of Sumar. Iglesias no longer formally leads the party, but from his different media vantage points he controls everything and has launched forceful messages against DÃaz’s strategy.
For the PSOE, the ideal would be for the vote to its left not to be divided into two options because this would weaken its results and then they could lack seats to reach a majority, in elections that seem so close. That explains the interest of Sánchez, who has been pending every day of the negotiations between both parties during his trip to China.
Iglesias has set the pace in all these sectors in recent years, inside or outside the Government. In the new phase that begins today, the conductor becomes Yolanda DÃaz.
