Spanish left-wing groups have finally managed to form a united bloc, more than 50 years since the transition to democracy in the late 1970s, and they have a common goal to stop the surge of the far right.
Despite the optimistic tone expressed on Saturday by acting Labour Minister and Sumar leader Yolanda Díaz, the birth of this large block of progressive forces has been very complex.
On Friday, a few hours before the official deadline, Sumar registered the coalition of 15 parties, which had 2.2 million votes in the recent municipal and regional elections, and obtained 2.9 million in the previous general elections of 2019.
With these votes and in collaboration with the Socialist Party, they aim to prevent a government of the Popular Party (PP/EPP) with the far-right Vox party (ECR), which remains quite a challenge.
Fratricidal fight over controversial minister Montero
Moments before the official deadline, the negotiating teams of Díaz and the acting Social Rights Minister and Secretary General of Podemos (Izquierda UE), Ione Belarra, fought a tough battle: Podemos demanded the lifting of the veto to appear on the Sumar lists of the controversial acting Equality Minister Irene Montero, former partner of party founder and former minister Pablo Iglesias.
In the end, the veto was not lifted. It is, for the moment, a victory for Díaz, who only a few years ago Iglesias considered his natural successor in Podemos.
On Saturday, Díaz expressed her satisfaction with the agreement, which has allowed the electoral coalition to be registered, and thanked the parties that make up the coalition without explicitly mentioning Podemos. “We are going to win the elections,” Díaz stressed, EFE reported.
“Spain wanted us to shake hands. We are going to show that politics can break with cynicism. It is our horizon, and we are not going to fail (…) we have not come to stir up fear, panic or tell horror stories and stir up fear of ghosts, but quite the opposite,” she added.
Also on Saturday, Belarra again demanded that Sumar lift the veto on Montero’s lists because not including her – she said – “is not only an unfair decision, but also a political mistake“.
To explain why Podemos finally agreed to integrate into the grand left-wing coalition with Sumar, Belarra sent her party’s activists a letter.
‘Threats’ to Podemos: it’s now or never
In the text, the minister assures that Díaz’s negotiating team informed Podemos of the refusal to lift the veto on Montero and the “irrevocable” decision to maintain the last offer sent. According to Belarra, Podemos was “threatened” that they would be excluded from the coalition if they did not accept Sumar’s conditions.
But Podemos has not given up.
Belarra, who will be number five on the list of Sumar in Madrid, does not accept the veto of Montero, the minister for equality who “has taken feminist advances in our country further than anyone before”, she stated.
Faced with the threat of being left out of the “grand coalition” of progressive forces to the left of the PSOE, Podemos decided to accept the agreement with a hybrid and very vague formula: to sign the pact but “without agreement”, Belarra explained on Saturday.
In an attempt to lift the veto, Belarra has urged Díaz to continue negotiating until the official presentation of the electoral lists, and the deadline is 19 June.
After Friday’s agreement, the parties that makeup Sumar are Podemos, Izquierda Unida, Catalunya En Comú, Más Madrid, Más País, Compromís, Chunta Aragonesista, Més per Mallorca, Més per Menorca, Verdes Equo, Proyecto Drago, Alianza Verde, Batzarre, Izquierda Asturiana and Iniciativa del Pueblo Andaluz.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
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