The autonomous candidate of Podemos in Asturias, Cova Tomé, denounced this Tuesday that the party leadership is maneuvering against her to set her aside just over 50 days before the May 28 elections. She is the only candidate from the critical sector who won the primaries for the official apparatus and who since then has been ignored and erased from all the events organized by Madrid with the different purple candidates.
Official sources from Podemos assure that it is “false” that an “expulsion file” has been opened against her, although they do acknowledge that she is being investigated by a party labor body in response to a complaint of “harassment”. This body, these sources emphasize, “is independent of the leadership of Podemos” and seeks to “understand what happened and ensure the occupational health of all workers.”
From Tomé’s team it is specified that the case is similar to the one that was undertaken at the time against Rosana Alonso in Cantabria and that ended with her disqualification. They explain that it is a case investigated by the Health and Safety Committee that has the capacity to dispatch matters “faster” than the Guarantees Committee. It would be in just a few weeks, when the party’s disciplinary body has deadlines of several months. These sources close to Tomé indicate that the case would seek a disqualification for her to be “expelled” from the electoral lists.
For Tomé there is already “someone in an office” writing a “sentence” that “promotes” his “expulsion”. “I am sad, outraged and, furthermore, surprised that while Ione Belarra very vehemently defends the primaries in Sumar, she passes the result of the primaries in Asturias vehemently. She despises them,” denounced Tomé, who was the only autonomous candidate of the purples who he had supported the act of Yolanda Díaz although he could not go in person to Magariños because of the wave of fires in the Principality.
The investigation would be the last episode in a dynamic of expulsions that has already taken away the number two of the candidacy, Xune Elipe, and number four, Jorge Fernández. In addition, he has also purged other prominent members of Tomé’s circle, such as the former general secretary of Asturias, Daniel Ripa.
“Now it’s my turn. The democratic outrage continues and the lack of respect for all the people who at the time supported the candidacy that I lead with your vote. The lack of respect for all the Podemos militants who still believe in internal democracy does not stop,” he denounced in a series of Twitter messages.
Tomé won the primaries last November with around 60% of the votes for the pro-government list headed by Alba González, who served as the organization secretary of the party in Asturias and who made a show of coming from working in the Ministry of Equality under the orders of Irene Montero. The result was 1,565 votes for Tomé and 1,150 support for González. A difference of 415 supports.
The Asturian candidate learned of her case last week and has presented allegations. But now that the term has expired, they consider that soon someone will dictate the “sentence” of her to remove her from the candidacy. However, she has asked for support from the militancy to “stop this outrage” and end a “destructive and inexplicable dynamic” that has caused “the unjustified expulsions of very significant colleagues in Podemos Asturies”, “all close” to her candidacy .
Tomé has recounted how he has been “no one” since he won the primaries. Both by the direction of Asturias and by the national one. “I am not being invited to the events to intervene in the media. I do not appear on the Podemos Asturies networks either. Of course I do not have any economic or human resources to support the campaign in which we should all be focused,” he criticized.
With just over 50 days to go before the elections, the situation in Asturias is very tense. In those elections, Podemos appears alone, since as usual there has been no agreement in this community with IU. Just like in Aragon. The two regions where the two formations that make up Unidas Podemos will surely go separately. In La Rioja and the Valencian Community they are working to close an agreement soon.
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