A total of 120 Podemos Catalunya militants have resigned en bloc from their membership in the party in response to the suspension of 13 former members of the leadership who last June opted for “unity” with Sumar before the 23-J elections. Among the resignations are many of the heavyweights of the purple party, such as councilors in municipalities such as Molins de Rei, El Prat, or the representative of Podem in Barcelona en Comú.
The announcement of the resignation comes through a manifesto to which La Vanguardia has had access signed by the 122 militants, including Yolanda López – the only Podem deputy in the Parliament, as well as councilors and representatives of the party in Barcelona en Comú – ,. In the text they charge against the suspension agreed at the end of the year by the Podemos State Guarantees Commission for being “arbitrary and excessive” and remember that it arrives at the doors of the party’s primaries – which will end on February 2 – “in a completely “intentional” with the aim of “preventing any candidacy that defends the unity of the Catalan space for change in the next citizen assembly.”
Podemos Catalunya is immersed in a primary process to renew the leadership, but also its political roadmap, in which the relationship with the commons is under discussion. At the moment, two candidates have undertaken the internal process. One, that of the until now general coordinator of the party, Conchi Abellán, and the second, that of the until now secretary of organization, María Pozuelo. However, the political differences between both candidates are not enormous, since both are committed to accentuating the autonomy of the party and to review “from one to one”, the relationship with the commons in view of the next electoral events, particularly the regional ones.
At the end of December, Podemos agreed for the 13 former members of the leadership, who resigned in November after learning that a file had been opened against them, a nine-month suspension from militancy and four years without being able to apply for public or organic positions in the party.
For the signatories, the sanction represents “a de facto expulsion of the greatest political capital that the organization has in Catalonia.” They also understand that by using the disciplinary route “the militancy is denied the possibility of taking a position in the main debate that we have today as an organization” which in their opinion is the commitment of many Podem Catalunya militants for the unity that they do not share “or the expulsion nor the breaking of the space with Catalunya en Comú”.
“Today we feel orphaned in the face of an election process where there is no possibility of defending unity and which we understand as a prelude to a definitive rupture and who knows if it is the beginning of an alliance with forces that do not belong to the space of change,” denounce the resignations, who see “with absolute incomprehension and disappointment” the breakup of the parliamentary group in Congress, the departure of Podemos towards the mixed group and its refusal to approve the Government’s decree on the reform of unemployment benefits.
Furthermore, the already ex-militants warn that Podemos Catalunya is in the “anteroom” of the break with the commons and reproach the leadership for paying the agreement with other parties “that does not belong to the space of change”, in clear reference to ERC, with whom the purple formation has maintained contacts and the statements by both parties that fuel a possible alliance are public.
For all this, the signatories of the manifesto conclude that “Podem Catalunya no longer represents us and we decided to leave the party to continue building a cohesive and diverse space for change.”
