Yolanda Díaz’s big week, which will culminate with the announcement of her candidacy next Sunday at a Sumar event in Madrid, begins as the previous one ended, with a tense atmosphere and confrontation with Podemos due to the purple party’s demand to seek a written commitment that there will be “open primaries” to make the general election lists.
Podemos sent a last offer to Díaz’s team this weekend to sign an agreement in which the vice president assumed that condition in the construction of her candidacy. However, there was no agreement with Sumar, so the talks are at a standstill and they have not unblocked the presence of the purples at the event on Sunday.
That tension has jumped to the press conference of the leadership of Podemos, which once again has become a loudspeaker to pressure Díaz with that demand. “As soon as it is accepted, we will reach an agreement,” said the national co-spokesperson, Pablo Fernández, who has warned that most of the citizens want both to close “open primaries”, in which they can participate “any person” to choose the candidates with “total transparency and guarantees”.
The bitterness of the situation makes it almost impossible for the front-row leaders of Podemos to be present on Sunday at the Magariños sports center (Madrid). Well, the purple ones will not attend if there is not that pact before and because Sumar does not seem willing to reach a bilateral agreement that commits the other actors without having them at the table.
In any case, Podemos avoids ruling out their presence 100% by pointing out that they trust that progress can be made throughout this week. The talks are not broken, but they are certainly not prospering towards the direction that Podemos wants.
Fernández has called attention to the fact that the primaries are something that “in theory” is what Sumar and Díaz herself “also” defend. “The approach is shared,” they excuse. And, they add, that it is a “sensible”, “reasonable” objective and that “it should be inherent to any transforming political space.”
Podemos defends that the party reach agreements with Díaz, diluting the possibility of a party table as demanded by IU and other space forces, in the same way that, they emphasize, the vice president “will reach agreements with other formations”.
Right now the photo on Sunday is that of the loneliness of Podemos. There will be Alberto Garzón (IU), Ada Colau (common), Mónica García (Más Madrid) and also Íñigo Errejón (Más País), who confirmed this Monday that he will attend the event. He was one of the few leaders of the front line who had yet to guarantee his presence.
Sources from Más País highlight the “good relationship” with the vice president and that this “is not new.” “We agree on the need to put on the table issues that matter to Spaniards such as mental health, the climate crisis, social justice or the rights of LGTBI people against the PP and its necessary alliance with the extreme right” , say these sources, who recall that Más País already supported the labor reform and that they have agreements such as the creation of a study commission on the impact of job insecurity on mental health, the results of which were presented 10 days ago by Díaz and Errejón in a photo where they exhibited high tuning.
On the other hand, the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, will also attend Díaz’s presentation as part of the large delegation of the communes headed by the three coordinators of Catalonia in Commune, who are Colau, Jessica Albiach and Candela López.
That relationship stings, and a lot, in Podemos. Pablo Iglesias has attacked Díaz this Monday because he is currently “much closer politically” to Más País, that is, Errejón, than to the purple party.
Likewise, Iglesias has also put pressure on Díaz with the primaries. In statements in RAC1, collected by Europa Press, the former secretary general has indicated that it would be preferable for him to commit himself in writing to holding open primaries to clear up “doubts” about his deployment. Do not trust Iglesias, who says that no matter how many statements are made, the best way to end uncertainty is to sign a pact that binds him politically.
Iglesias has remarked that “everyone” is interested in the preparation of future electoral lists and has called for “maturity” and “seriousness” to address the process of reconfiguration of the left.
For his part, Alberto Garzón, leader of the IU, has criticized the “noise” generated by Podemos to put pressure on Díaz. “Everything that at this moment is making noise and wearing down Yolanda Díaz is working against the agreement,” the also Minister of Consumption has sentenced in RNE.
In this sense, Garzón has remarked that neither IU nor other formations are setting conditions to attend the Sumar act on Sunday because “this is not about this type of negotiations.” Thus, he has criticized that these debates are “secondary” and that the important thing is to “understand the political process” that Sumar implies, reports Efe.
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