The second vice-president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda DÃaz, started yesterday morning contacts with all the forces in the political space to speed up the formation of the Sumar unity platform. DÃaz learned of the decision of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, minutes before his appearance, he notified all the formations of the confederal space and the eventual partners of Sumar and initiated the contacts to be able to register in the ten days that joint candidacy is enabled by law.
In the environment of the vice president, they are aware that the haste of the call shortens the project’s take-off track, but at the same time limits a negotiation process which, according to sources in the confederal group, could turn into an ordeal and be prolonged until well into the fall due to the demands for seats, ministries, political autonomy and funding that Podemos posed to the other formations.
After yesterday’s tough result for Podemos, and the modest results of Més Madrid, CompromÃs, IU, En Comú Podemos and the rest of the left formations, negotiations should be simplified.
In any case, the vice-president was the first to react to Sánchez’s announcement, and she did so by taking a step forward. “The message received last night was very clear: we need to do things in a different way”, and he added, postulating his desire to lead a candidacy: “I accept the challenge”. The vice-president called for mobilization, proclaiming that “in the face of Feijóo’s black Spain, we are out to win”. “People are waiting for us”, he added.
The general secretary of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, extended the electoral blow to the rest of the formations of the progressive space – “the progressive bloc lost in the first part of the party, but we came out winning in the second part and we want to do what we do best, which is to come back”–, but he assured that the lilacs have already started working on the achievement of a unity candidacy for the July elections, “the news that People have been waiting for so long.”
Also the general coordinator of IU and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, wrote on Twitter, before the announcement of the President of the Central Government, and conjured for the recovery of the political space: “Before the election call, from Esquerra Unida we will defend the social conquests achieved during all these years and thread the needle to present a proposal for a country that will allow us to stop the reactionary wave”, a statement similar to that made by the general secretary of the PCE, Enrique Santiago, IU spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies: “The PCE, together with Esquerra Unida, we are working to ensure a government that maintains and expands the social gains for the working families of our country”, and added: “We are convinced that we will stop the reactionary wave with enthusiasm, proposals and mobilization”.
With things like this, and with the will already expressed by Més Madrid, which maintains its hegemony on the left side of the electorate in Madrid ahead of the PSOE; CompromÃs, which is clearly maintained as a third force in the Valencian Community, and to other parties, such as En Comú Podem, to integrate with Sumar, it remains to close an agreement for the integration of a diminished Podemos in the electoral platform , the only party that had expressed its reluctance to participate before the presentation of the new candidacy of Yolanda DÃaz in Magariños, on April 2.
