June 2016. What seemed impossible happened. The forces of the alternative left to the PSOE parked their differences and united under the leadership of Pablo Iglesias to face a general election in which Pedro Sánchez was slammed for the hegemony of the political space and the Government. The experiment by which Podemos and IU embraced each other, in the well-known bottle pact, was announced from the same Puerta del Sol that had seen the 15-M, that fuse of indignation. But the sorpasso was watered down: the PSOE endured the all or nothing and the Unidos Podemos coalition lost a million votes compared to the separate sum of Podemos and IU six months ago.
That alliance barely held together that legislature. In the 2019 elections it was already broken into a thousand pieces. Strategic and ideological differences, power struggles, bad personal relationships and a disastrous management of space from Podemos cracked the iconic electoral poster of 26-J, “The smile of a country”, which captured Iglesias, Íñigo Errejón, Mónica in a collage Oltra or Carolina Bescansa. None of them resisted. And neither were others who were also implicitly on that poster, today disconnected from Podemos, for different reasons: Manuela Carmena, Teresa Rodríguez, Xavier Domènech, Xosé Manuel Beiras y las Mareas Gallegas, Kichi, Miguel Urbán… And the last, most recent Alberto Rodriguez.
All those pieces, and others, Yolanda Díaz aspires to put together now. Sumar is not only the name of his political project, it is a declaration of intent to put back what was broken, as well as his ambition to incorporate other forces that were left out at that time to his platform or to recruit independent people with talent that are not now enrolled in politics.
Díaz has faced that goal in two ways. On the one hand, months ago he opened conversations with fifteen parties from different spheres; on the other, he undertook a “listening process” to seek citizen legitimacy and also to get to know new profiles of people from civil society.
In the part of parties, it has the full support of IU-PCE and En Comú Podem (Ada Colau). In fact, the mayoress of Barcelona is the one with whom she makes a de facto political tandem. Then there is Podemos, with which she counts but with the challenge of seeing how she resolves her notable discrepancies.
All of them are today in United We Can, and Díaz assumes that they will continue together. Hence, his priority has been to rebuild bridges with forces with which he shared a parliamentary group in 2016. Mainly, Más País (Errejón) and Compromís. With both, the maxim has been discreet dialogue and seeking a natural approach. It has helped a lot that there is personal harmony between the parties and also a shared style of doing politics. But it is the wounds with Podemos, due to that traumatic past, and the urgent electoral competition in May, which reinforces prudence. Although at every opportunity that lends itself, Díaz and Errejón already exhibit themselves together without complexes.
The sources consulted indicate that, in the case of errejonismo, the conversations take place twice with Más País and with Más Madrid, on which, it is emphasized, they have different CIFs and their own personalities. That is why Mónica García, leader of the opposition to Ayuso, must be included in the equation, who is very explicit in her support for Yolanda Díaz.
Compromís is also close, although they are concerned about the role and visibility it could have in Congress. The comfort of his alliance with Errejón lies precisely in the total autonomy that he enjoys, and that for Joan Baldoví was key to discarding Podemos. Therefore, they appeal to know what the project will consist of.
Errejón has been establishing alliances with the so-called Turia Agreement, which provides a structure for Díaz in some communities. It happens with the Aragonese Chunta, with which there are conversations -it already converged with IU before 15-M- and which will be in Madrid on April 2. They come from the land that made Pablo Echenique a deputy, still faithful to Montero-Belarra. Alberto Rodríguez and his party in the Canary Islands, Proyecto Drago, are also part of the Turia Agreement. Among its promoters is Héctor Morán, Díaz’s adviser. Few more privileged bridges to reach Sumar.
The Green Equo and Alianza Verde formations will be in the photo of the launch of the candidacy and offer Díaz an ecological profile. At the head of Alianza Verde is Juantxo López de Uralde, who leads that Equo split that remained faithful to Podemos when those close to Inés Sabanés left with Errejón.
The most complicated piece of the puzzle is, paradoxically, that of Galicia. Because the space of the Tides died as it was conceived in 2015, as certified by the Galician elections (Podemos was left at zero). Now it is more fragmented, with the BNG recovering space. Anova (Beiras) is in full reconstruction and the mayoralties were lost. However, Díaz has the support of Galician figures such as Antón Gómez Reino or Marta Lois.
Where Díaz seems to be DJing is in the Balearic Islands. Més per Mallorca will not go to his event and says that Sumar is not now within his framework of “possible relationships.”
Neither will Adelante Andalucía be present, the party of Teresa Rodríguez and Kichi, who maintain their own course towards an Andalusian force that aspires to have its own voice in Madrid. Both referring to Anticapitalistas, what remains of that space outside of Andalusia (Urbán) is also far from Díaz.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
