The departure of the confederal parliamentary group announced last week not only made official the total break between Podemos and Sumar, but also served to eliminate any ties from the purple formation. A liberation to fight alone both in the regional elections of Galicia and Euskadi and, mainly, in the European elections next June for which, and here is the great news, the former Minister of Equality Irene Montero will be its candidate after undergoing a primary process that seems like a mere procedure.
This was confirmed this Saturday during the event Now more than ever that Podemos celebrated in the Palace of the Press in Madrid to the sound of the rumba “He wasn’t dead, he was partying” that Peret popularized. A kind of regrouping of the leading nucleus of an increasingly diminished and castled party with which, appealing to the strength of its militancy -several hundred people stayed at the doors when the capacity was filled-, the purple formation intends to return the look at its “origins” to leave behind the “difficulties” experienced in recent weeks.
Starting with the departure of the Government, continuing with “the cornering” suffered in the distribution of the positions corresponding to Sumar in the various commissions in the Congress of Deputies, and ending with the trickle of resignations of several leaders, the majority in Madrid, amid criticism for the “lack of democracy” and the “unilaterality” with which the party leadership would be maneuvering.
The first to speak was its general secretary. Ione Belarra has glossed the “milestones” achieved by her formation, describing the increase in the minimum wage and the advances in social and housing rights as Podemos’ contribution to the “democratic heritage of the country.”
“We begin a new path with enormous pending transformation tasks so that Podemos can be useful in the next decade for simple people (…) and so that no one is above anyone, not even the King,” Belarra appealed as a way of reset of a project that wants to recover the vigor of its golden years. “And for that reason, dear Irene, I ask you to start over,” he suggested to the former Minister of Equality, confirming that she will lead Podemos’ candidacy for the European elections. “No one better than you to help us get back on track with a brave, ambitious project that will move Spain forward into the future just as you have moved our country forward in feminist policies,” she added.
The answer is not waiting. After melting into a hug that confirmed the ‘yes’ to the proposal, Irene Montero has structured a speech with constant references to the origins of the party in search of that essence that permeated the left-wing electorate and that did not accompany them in the regional elections and municipal May. “Everything must be changed until all people have all their rights guaranteed. I will run in the Podemos primaries to be the candidate for the European elections in July 2024 if our militancy so decides,” she added.
Demonstrating that he is already in campaign mode, Montero has insisted that “Europe has a lot at stake in these elections. The anti-fascist and democratic pact that made Europe possible could be buried by a victory of the extreme right and also by the hypocrisy and inaction of the social democracy and the European right”.
Montero ended with a direct shot at Sumar: “We are here to change the rules of the game and build relationships of respect in the democratic bloc. And that means respecting and being respected (…) We are not here to be given a few crumbs of the power of bipartisanship in exchange for silence,” he noted before guaranteeing in summary that “the reasons and hope remain intact.”
The purple formation had primed the event throughout the week, describing it as “very important” and keeping the list of participants secret to change the negative inertia derived from suffering the greatest crisis that has been remembered since its founding. Both at the national level, with Belarra as the only survivor after 23-J, and at the regional level with weakened or even non-existent regional cadres, as is the case of Madrid, after the trickle of casualties led by Jesús Santos, Roberto Sotomayor and Carolina Alonzo.
In Podemos, however, they believe that the European elections can change everything. As it is held by a single constituency throughout Spain, all votes count equally. Or in other words, none will be left out of the count as a result of the famous 3% provincial limits that govern domestic elections. And under that premise they trust that they will be able to equalize the forces with Sumar to redefine the specific weight of each one beyond the number of deputies that the electoral coalition of last July 23 provided.
Today’s event is held after the integration of Podemos into the mixed group of Congress and in a pre-campaign context for the next electoral cycle within the political space to the left of the PSOE. Regarding the regional level, Podemos and Sumar are immersed in the negotiation with IU and Equo in order to explore a broad candidacy, but in the Galician case the conversations between Yolanda Díaz’s project with the purple ones have been interrupted, affected by the schism Nacional level. Precisely this Saturday, the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, participates in an event in Galicia to present the Sumar team in this autonomy.
