One week after the beginning of the 28-M electoral campaign, the relationship between the national leadership of Podemos and its candidate in Asturias is non-existent. The situation has reached such a surreal point that Irene Montero has gone to Gijón this Thursday to hold a pre-election act without even inviting Cova Tomé to participate, who has made his own call in another part of the same city.
The ninguneo of the purple dome rises, then, to another level, after it began in November, as a result of Tomé becoming the only critical candidate who won the primaries for a list promoted by the official leadership. Since then, the head of the Podemos poster in Asturias has been excluded from all party events in which Podemos has brought together its regional candidates, which have been several. This dynamic was replicated at the Spring Festival held in April in Zaragoza, which was the unofficial launch of the purple campaign, where Tomé showed up without an invitation to force a meeting with Ione Belarra that did not take place either. In all this time, in addition to the fact that Tomé has given her support to Yolanda Díaz’s Sumar project, Podemos is not promoting or supporting her through its official channels or social networks.
This invisibility has aggravated the internal crisis that Podemos is experiencing in Asturias, with an open confrontation between pro-government supporters (who control the party) and critics (who previously controlled it and who won the primaries to top the lists). This confrontation was especially virulent in the days prior to the registration of the candidacies before the Electoral Board. Tomé and a group of like-minded entrenched themselves at the Podemos headquarters in Gijón for six days as a measure of pressure to, they said, avoid being separated from them.
This maneuver did not prevent the Asturian leadership from excluding number four from the candidacy, Jorge Fernández, because he was disqualified, as justified, for a case of workplace harassment. His position on the list is occupied by Ana Taboada, a supporter of the official leadership.
With the worst internal climate possible, Podemos faces the elections in Asturias. To which must be added that, once again, the scenario is repeated that the alternative left to the PSOE is divided into two lists: the purple and the IU. Only in Asturias and Aragon does this happen. In the other ten autonomous communities there is a coalition between the two.
Irene Montero has appeared this Thursday in Gijón to support only the purple candidate for City Council, Olaya Suárez, while she has once again ignored Tomé despite being the head of the regional list and being in the city. “Today I have been invited by Olaya Suárez. I am very happy to be here”, has justified the Minister of Equality.
Despite her comment, the number two of Podemos has been repeatedly asked about the absence of Tomé and about the support that the leadership of her party will give her. Montero has responded that she “knows” that she “has the full support of the state leadership” of Podemos, “just like the rest of the regional candidates.”
Questioned about how this support was going to be made visible, Montero said: “In the campaign we campaign.” And she has insisted that this Thursday she was invited by Suárez.
Precisely the candidate of Podemos in Gijón was one of the most critical against Tomé for locking himself in the party headquarters in the city for six days to protest against the leaders of his party. In an intervention on Pablo Iglesias’ channel, Suárez accused her colleagues of exercising “political violence” against her, while the program in question accused these members of Podemos of acting “in the purest Trumpist way.”
In another part of the city, and without meeting Montero, Tomé has denounced to journalists that the invisibility he suffers is “nothing new” and has indicated that he was not even notified of Montero’s presence. “It has been happening since we won the primaries in November because we were not Madrid’s option to run for the elections in May,” Tomé pointed out, in statements collected by Efe. In them she has guaranteed that she will continue working on her campaign despite situations like today’s, given that, in her opinion, “reasonable” would be for a regional candidate to be aware of a minister’s visit.
Regarding the campaign, Tomé has said that he does not know what is going to happen. He, then, only has “an abstract message” from the Asturian leadership about the national leaders who will attend the events in the Principality.
This Friday a feminist act is held in Madrid with Montero and many candidates for the regional and municipal elections. Tomé will not be there again. Suárez is going to participate.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project