The Secretary of Organization of Podemos, and number 3 of the party, Lilith Verstrynge, announced this Friday that she is resigning from all her positions. Both her position on the Executive of the formation and the record of deputy in Congress that she will go to Sumar. So the coalition government will have one more seat in the next parliamentary votes.
Verstrynge’s loss, about which the leader herself has omitted to give details, represents a serious setback for the purple party given that she is a key member. In addition to being a position of the highest confidence of the Secretary General, Ione Belarra, the Madrid leader was in charge of the internal and territorial restructuring of a formation seriously eroded after the double electoral cycle of 2023 which, in addition to leaving her outside the central Government , made him go from 47 to 15 regional deputies.
The resignation of the deputy title that Verstrynge obtained in the general elections – on the list for Barcelona along with members of Catalunya en Comú – entails his loss for Podemos, which will now have four representatives in the Lower House while Sumar will increase to 27.
In this way, the coalition Government will be supported by 147 deputies, although the four Podemos deputies will continue to be decisive in the current parliamentary arithmetic as long as Junts abstains from voting.
Using the electoral list, that seat would go to Candela López, one of the three coordinators of Catalunya en Comú who currently holds the position of third vice president of the Barcelona Provincial Council. Although her move to national politics has not yet been confirmed.
“Farewells are difficult and sad. I leave behind my political responsibilities and also the record of being a deputy. A thousand thanks to the activism of Podemos and to the people who have trusted me these years,” she noted cryptically on the social network Twitter).
From Podemos, however, the official message focuses on “appreciating the great work” carried out by Verstrynge in the “Organization Secretariat”. “In recent months, Verstrynge has been at the forefront of negotiations with Sumar, a very demanding task that he has carried out under very difficult conditions. Podemos conveys his best wishes to him. This will always be his home,” reads the brief statement released to the media.
Belarra has spoken along the same lines: “Now the fundamental thing is that you take care of yourself and that you are well. Podemos will always be your home. Thank you for so much work in such difficult conditions. A huge hug,” the national leader of the party conveyed to her. purple.
Message similar to that delivered by Podemos’s number two, Irene Montero: “The priority now is you. We love you and we will continue walking together.”
The loss of the Madrid leader delves into the serious crisis that the party is going through after the intense 2023 electoral cycle that, in the end, has left her without representation in five of the six regional executives of which she was a part in the previous legislature. , while it has led to the departure of the central government chaired by Pedro Sánchez.
All of this happens in an adverse context for a party that in recent weeks has suffered significant losses such as those of its head of the economic area, Nacho Álvarez, its leader in Madrid, Jesús Santos, its last electoral candidate for the City Council of the capital, Roberto Sotomayor, or its latest spokespersons in the Madrid regional Assembly, Carolina Alonso and Alejandra Jacinto.
