Top Spanish diplomat to take key spot in Sumar

Agustín Santos Maraver, Spain’s ambassador to the UN in New York, will accompany Yolanda Díaz, Labour Minister and presidential candidate of the new progressive platform Sumar, into the election campaign and feature second on the platform’s joint list, Díaz confirmed on social media Monday.

With the presidential election due on 23 July, Diaz had a fresh move up her sleeve as she announced a top Spanish diplomat as her top partner for the elections.

“I want to tell you some very good news: Agustín Santos Maraver, Spain’s current ambassador to the United Nations, will be the number two for Sumar in Madrid”, Díaz, leader of the new platform that includes 15 left-wing parties, including Podemos, announced on her Twitter.

Appointing the ambassador to the UN in New York, who previously was Spain’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva and Head of Cabinet to Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos from 2008-2011, is justified, according to Diaz, who stressed that “the defence of multilateralism, human rights and the global fight against climate change are key” for the new leftist alliance.

At the same time, Diaz refused to comment about excluding Equality Minister Irene Montero (Podemos) from the platform’s joint list.

“What they (Spaniards) want is for us to provide solutions to their problems. The rest I don’t think is of much interest”, she told the press as she arrived at the EU labour ministers’ meeting, speaking out about the issue for the first time since the controversy arose over the weekend.

“Spain was asking for a comprehensive agreement” that has been reached, she said, thanking all the political groups for their “generosity”.

“We are going to do what we must do right now, which is to provide solutions for our country. We have them. We have a programme that we will present in the next few days, and we will continue to improve people’s lives,” Díaz pointed out.

Despite defending the ruling coalition of which Unidas Podemos is a part of and some of its achievements including the labour market reform, reducing the pay gap, or increasing the minimum wage, Pablo Iglesias, Podemos’s co-founder and former deputy prime minister alongside Montero, openly threatened Díaz with “consequences” for her decision to exclude Montero.

“I can understand the pressure that Yolanda is under at the moment, but I think she has time to rectify it (…). If she doesn’t, maybe not next week or in a month and a half, but in a few years’ time, it will weigh heavily on her because I think that, as well as being an injustice, it is a political mistake”, Iglesias told Catalan radio station RAC-1.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)