The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has announced the opening of a process of “collective reflection and debate” in the party to “redefine” the relationship of the Morados with Yolanda Díaz, as well as to defend their “political autonomy” within the Sumar coalition. Goals that will be expressed in writing in a new political document that will serve as a “roadmap” for training to face the coming years. The ultimate objective, she has emphasized, is to “strengthen Podemos politically and organizationally.”
This message encourages Podemos’s intention to challenge Díaz for the lost hegemony within the space of the alternative left to the PSOE to recover a leading role. Of course, it is as a declaration of rebellion against playing a secondary role, as Sumar is offering in Congress, or being left out of the future coalition government, as it is feared will happen. “If you are willing to fight, so are we,” proclaimed Belarra, in a phrase that summarizes the challenge that Podemos launched this Saturday in an event held at the Fernando de Rojas theater, in the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, before 500 people and hundreds more who have been left unable to enter.
The purple general secretary has ruled that the political objectives that the party had set when Yolanda Díaz was entrusted as a candidate “have not been met.” What’s more, she has accused the leader of Sumar of having “subjected” her formation to a process “that cannot be called unity” and that is “unfair”, leading to a loss of votes and seats in space. “Agreements under these conditions cannot be repeated,” she concluded.
Thus, Belarra has justified that Podemos’s obligation is to “take care” of its “way of doing politics”, which she has summarized as “that you do not put yourself in profile and that you do not let colleagues fall.” Two shots against Díaz for having renounced the belligerence and “noise” of Podemos when it came to acting politically and for having sacrificed Irene Montero from the electoral lists.
Belarra has expressed Podemos’s vocation to have “autonomy as a political force” and “ability to make decisions” within Sumar. So far from resigning itself to playing a secondary role or being a subsidiary force, Podemos poses the challenge of resisting and re-emerging with a “strengthening” of the organization in all its areas. To achieve this, Belarra has called on its militants to participate in a process of “collective reflection and debate” that begins now. This Saturday the political document of the national leadership that aims to serve as a “road map” will be made public. The culmination will take place on November 4 in a kind of political convention. In between, there will be different milestones in which leaders and activists will be able to “debate” and “amend” the line drawn and, ultimately, there will be a vote to endorse it. This new document will define the framework of the relationship with Sumar and will replace the still current document that elevated Díaz as its electoral candidate.
On the other hand, Podemos has wanted to claim itself as an autonomous interlocutor in the negotiations with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and has publicly established what its “proposals” are to the majority partner to be satisfied with a hypothetical agreement. Belarra has refused to call them “conditions” but from the terms in which he has put forward some of those demands, there seems to be little difference. “We think it is essential that Irene Montero and her team continue to lead the Ministry of Equality,” he stressed. This has been the main of the five “proposals” announced.
The act has served Belarra to give solemnity to this claim that the purple leaders have been making for quite some time, since they consider that the continuity of Montero is “the best contribution” that Podemos can make to the new coalition government. He has said that this ministry requires the “courage” and “ability to think” of the still minister.
In fact, he has even revealed part of the “a lot of work to do” that he has in mind: building a care system, promoting conciliation permits, “recovering the centrality of consent” in the law of only yes is yes after the correction imposed by the PSOE, act against obstetric violence, recognize “non-binary” people, fight against sexist violence or make an anti-racist law. With Montero, he has proclaimed, “the transformations are going to be promoted until the end.”
As for the other four “proposals”, he has asked in terms of housing to “freeze” all rental contracts during the entire legislature, approve an index of contracts and make a “moratorium” on tourist accommodation. He has also cited the minimum wage, to demand an increase to 1,500 euros.
In addition, regarding “lowering the cost of living”, he has delved into extending the reduction on public transport “forever” and limiting food business margins so that the shopping basket decreases. Finally, he has demanded to “repeal the gag law” and renew the CGPJ (on which Podemos has a proposal to change the parliamentary majority to do so without the PP).
The axis that has structured the entire Podemos act has been the self-affirmation that it continues to be a living and useful project, in the face of the sentences that declare it “dead” after having lost the hegemony of the space and having been diluted in Sumar. The motto with which it had been convened already summarized that spirit: “With you, we can.” “A call to militancy to dig a trench to resist in these difficult times.”
In this sense, Irene Montero’s intervention has had a lot of political and moral injection for this resurgence. “They don’t fear us for what we have already done, but for what we are capable of doing. They fear us because we have not yet bowed,” she said.
The number two of Podemos, who was the most acclaimed during the event, wanted to display “loyalty” with Belarra in the face of the unrest of many militancy with the current situation of the party and for having accepted the pact with Sumar under the conditions in which made. He has made reference to this to come to his defense with personal and political praise, also emphasizing that he acted with “bravery” to “take care of Podemos” and also of Montero herself in that situation, despite the fact that he ended up accepting that she was excluded from the lists. She put all the blame for the situation on Díaz for imposing on Podemos “impositions that have not been asked of any other political force.”
In the midst of an offensive by all of Podemos to get her to repeat as Minister of Equality, Montero wanted to invalidate the main reproach that the PSOE makes against her so that she does not continue in office: who is to blame for the fact that the law of only yes means yes has caused more than a thousand sentence reductions for sexual offenders. The still Minister of Equality has defended herself by accusing the then head of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, of being the most responsible.
“It would have been much easier to say that the law has a blunder committed by the Ministry of Justice, which is from the PSOE, because all reforms to the Penal Code are decided by the Ministry of Justice,” he noted. “But we are not like that, we do not put ourselves in profile when the reactionary sectors come.” In any case, he has once again insisted that the problem is not in the law, but rather that there are courts that “have decided not to apply the law correctly.”
Among the half a thousand attendees were the leadership of Podemos and the vast majority of national and territorial leaders, since after the event they had also convened a State Citizen Council. Among other people, Juan Carlos Monedero, Rafa Mayoral, Juanma de Olmo, Pilar Garrido, Noemí Santana, Javier Sánchez Serna, Juan Antonio Delgado, Ángela Rodríguez Pam, Pedro Honrubia or Rafa Palacios have been there,…
There have also been representatives of other political formations with ERC, EH Bildu, IU or Alianza Verde. Gabriel Rufián attended on behalf of the Catalan independentists, who was acclaimed and received by the Podemos militancy with one of the great ovations of the morning.