Marta Lois is Yolanda Díaz’s big bet for the Galician elections. The current spokesperson for Sumar in Congress has run to be the candidate for the Xunta in the elections on February 18, as this newspaper has learned, a decision that has yet to be endorsed by the promoter of Sumar Galicia.
In any case, the decision has already matured to the point that Díaz goes to Santiago today to participate in the launch of Sumar’s candidacy. The first that the coalition faces at the regional level since its debut in the general elections in July.
That need to break the predictions and manage to re-enter the Galician Parliament with some seats – now his political space has none – are the reasons why Díaz has turned to Lois, with whom he maintains a relationship of maximum trust and which he placed just four months ago in the strategic position of spokesperson in Congress. Thanks to her role as the highest representative of the Sumar group, Lois has been able to take advantage of that projection to increase her popularity and the degree of knowledge of her in Galicia.
When her candidacy is officially announced, Lois will have to decide if she maintains her record in Congress until after the Galician elections or if, instead, she ceases immediately to focus all her efforts on the candidacy for the Xunta. There is also the intermediate formula of holding on as long as possible in office to take advantage of visibility and handing over the baton a few days before starting the campaign. It would be the most probable path seeing other precedents. Some of these scenarios would mean that Díaz would have to appoint a new spokesperson in the parliamentary group.
Lois will thus return to Galicia after a brief stint in Congress as a deputy for La Coruña and spokesperson in Congress, where she has had to deal with the complex relationship with Podemos and internal criticism for her role as speaker and spokesperson. She had previously been a councilor in Santiago.
In the absence of the official announcement, the other big unknown of these elections is whether Sumar and Podemos will meet again in a joint candidacy after the breakup in Congress. Despite the difficulties and tensions, positions have come closer in recent hours. If a few days ago the agreement to ally seemed very distant, today it is much closer, although neither of the two parties still wants to take it for granted. Podemos has the signature in Madrid and that always adds an extra layer of uncertainty.
The slamming of the door by the purples in Congress and their unilateral march to the Mixed Group startled the incipient negotiations in Galicia and caused the immediate suspension of the dialogue for days, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. That breakup caught Podemos’s Galician coordinator, Borja San Ramón, addressing the terms of a pact and unleashed a heightened lack of trust.
After problems in resuming dialogue, Podemos launched several offers that were rejected by Sumar. Mainly because they were “the same”: getting a third of the candidacy and resources. The complexity for an agreement lies in the fact that Podemos does not even remotely have that political and electoral strength in Galicia. It lacks institutional representation in the Galician Parliament and barely has a few hundred members, compared to the “more than 3,000 registered” that Sumar claims to have, in addition to two national deputies. Added to that is Díaz’s weight in his community.
This strong imbalance between purple and fuchsia was also poisoned because at the same time leaders and members of Podemos made the attack on Sumar their daily life in politics and on social networks, accusing those of Díaz of being a servile leftist and sold out to the PSOE. While that made the relationship difficult, Sumar prioritized advancing talks with the Galician IU federation, Esquerra Unida, while leaving Podemos for last, leaving him with no options to go alone.
In the absence of that piece finally falling into place, Sumar was urged to present a visible face of the candidacy now so as not to waste time in the 18-F race. Finally she has turned to Lois, who has been making territory for some time but is now facing her true leap into the Galician arena.
