The Second Vice President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, has confirmed the incorporation into Sumar’s electoral team, as economic spokesperson, of Podemos’ Secretary of Economy and Secretary of State for Social Rights, Nacho Álvarez, a key figure in Podemos’ economic action in the executive and right hand of Ione Belarra in the Ministry of Social Rights.
Ignacio Álvarez Peralta (Madrid, June 16, 1977) is a professor of economics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, responsible for the Podemos Economy Secretariat since its foundation, and is a member of the State Citizen Council and the party Executive.
Álvarez has led the United Podemos negotiating team since 2020 in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 general state budgets within the Coalition Government, but also all the other economic negotiations that have taken place with the Socialists, with the exception of those related to the right labor, which were directed from Labor.
Thus, his is the negotiating leadership in the Housing law, the reform of the taxation of large banks and energy companies, all the palliative measures that the executive has deployed as a result of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine -moratorium on evictions , decree on basic supplies, rental moratorium, Iberian energy exception–, as well as the implementation of the Minimum Vital Income, or the measures promoted by Social Rights regarding support for families and maternity and paternity leave, everything happened by his hands. Álvarez has been the cornerstone of the economic action of Podemos since its founding and, later, within the coalition government.
Co-founder of Podemos, Nacho Álvarez has always tried to stay out of the successive internal struggles, although he has always been loyal to the leadership of the formation. Thus, in the traumatic break between Pablo Iglesias and Íñigo Errejón before the second citizen assembly of Podemos, Álvarez presented, along with Carolina Bescansa, a third way to try to avoid the schism between the two main factions, led by what until then were numbers one and two of the match.
In the same sense, Álvarez has always maintained fluid relations with the second vice president as well as with the Minister of Social Rights even in the moments of greatest tension between Podemos and the rest of the political space during the turbulent last year and a half.
At a press conference at the Ministry of Labor after meeting with other Latin American ministers, Yolanda Díz “deeply” thanked Álvarez, who will be the economic spokesperson and “whoever pays for economic debates on behalf of Sumar”, his incorporation into her electoral team, of which he has said that he is being nurtured with “top-level professionals”, also alluding to the recently incorporated CC OO economist Carlos Marín Urriza.
Álvarez joins Sumar’s campaign team to “direct the political proposal on social, economic and welfare state policies” and will be Sumar’s spokesman on economic matters, coalition sources previously announced.
The same sources described Álvarez as “a leading economist in our country, who will reinforce Sumar’s commitment to continue expanding social rights, make a great fiscal revolution in our country and bet on an economic policy that generates quality jobs.”
