Podemos has taken the final step and has broken ties with Sumar, a platform, that of Yolanda Díaz, in which he felt cornered and which, to a large extent, he blamed for having been “expelled” from the Government. Now the five deputies of the purple formation decide to leave the Sumar parliamentary group and become part of the Mixed Group where they will have a greater parliamentary subsidy and, above all, they will have their own voice to defend their proposals.
The decision was made by the Podemos secretariat this afternoon but, in fact, it had been being considered since the last investiture debate of Pedro Sánchez and was consolidated after confirming that the purples would not have any position in the Council of Ministers. “The straw that broke the camel’s back,” according to party sources, was Díaz’s decision to leave them without a deputy spokesperson in Congress and annul their ability to present initiatives in Congress.
This annihilation of their voice has been clearly demonstrated by not allowing them to intervene in the first debate held in the Chamber regarding Spain’s position in the conflict between the terrorist organization Hamas and the State of Israel. a confrontation in which the purple ones demand the breaking of Spain’s diplomatic relationship with Israel and the accusation of the Jewish Government of perpetrating a genocide against the population of Gaza.
However, the deep reasons go much deeper. We can also blame them for having “blocked” all the initiatives that they have tried to champion and even for having torpedoed the possibility of distributing the speaking time in the Chamber so that the purples, led by Ione Belarra, could participate in Pedro’s investiture debate. Sanchez.
Now, with its move to the Mixed Group, Podemos not only makes a five-seat hole in the left-wing, pro-independence and nationalist majority that supports Sánchez, but also acquires its own voice to defend its postulates and becomes an actor with which the Executive will have to negotiate face to face in the same way as it does with the PNV, Bildu, ERC, Junts, CC or BNG.
As the majority force within the Mixed Group, the five Podemos deputies guarantee themselves a leading role when it comes to making their voices heard from the Congress platform and, in addition, they will act as spokesperson for the group during two thirds of the legislature, which will allow them It will allow them to present initiatives that, if they had remained integrated into the Sumar Group, they would not have been able to carry out.
In the Mixed Group, they will also have the possibility of agreeing with the BNG, with a deputy in Congress, which could increase their influence by up to six seats, one more than the one currently occupied by the PNV and the same ones with those told by another of Sánchez’s preferred partners, EH Bildu.
The seams of the tense relationship between Podemos and Sumar have ended up bursting just two weeks after the constitution of the new Government, in which they have been left without any share of power. The purple ones have justified this Tuesday that they are joining the Mixed Group in order to be able to “guarantee their capacity for political action” in Congress, as Canal Red, Pablo Iglesias’ media, has advanced.
The excuse for the definitive slamming of the door has been the appearance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, on Palestine in which the five deputies led by Ione Belarra have not been able to intervene autonomously. “The voice that has most forcefully condemned the genocide in Gaza has been missing, demanding that [Pedro] Sánchez move from words to actions,” argues the digital created by the founder of the party.
In Congress, the news generated a real shock during the plenary session this Tuesday. Many of the deputies from Sumar and Podemos have left the chamber and rushed, with tense faces, to their offices seconds after learning the information.
Subsequently, the national co-spokesperson and deputy of the Morados Javier Sánchez has admitted in statements to the press that they have made this decision because they cannot “do politics” in the political space with which they ran for the elections and that they are moving to the Mixed Group ” to drive bold changes” that they could not make in their current position.
“We have tried to do everything possible but it has turned out to be impossible,” denounced the Podemos parliamentarian, who has reproached Vice President Yolanda Díaz that “the rules are not the same for all members” of the parliamentary group.
Until the last moment, Belarra’s party – which in turn held the Social Rights portfolio until two weeks ago – tried to pressure, without success, for Irene Montero to remain in the new coalition Government as head of Equality. Both former ministers said goodbye to their positions, accusing Sánchez of having “kicked them out” for “inconveniencing” the powerful.
Podemos has warned throughout the day both Sumar and the PSOE and the members of the Mixed Group of the movement that it was about to carry out. Podemos sources explain that the decision has been made in the last few hours but has been “macerated” for weeks: “It has been an accumulation since the return of summer.”
Although Podemos emphasizes that this is not the motivation that led to this decision, the party recognizes that it benefits financially from its move to the Mixed Group. Likewise, the presence of Podemos members at the committee tables agreed upon in recent days is not affected.
Sumar, for his part, assures that he has found out through the media that Podemos was leaving the parliamentary group. “We have not been given any political explanation,” lamented Sumar’s spokesperson, Marta Lois, who accuses the purples of committing “a flagrant rupture and breach of the electoral agreement,” which was limited to the entire legislature.
Sumar’s spokesperson preferred not to talk about economic issues, but she did say that her group will “value” the presence of Podemos at the committee tables. “By logic and coherence there will be a remodeling,” she said.