The European Greens closed ranks with the leftist coalition Sumar on 29-30 September to set an alliance ahead of EU elections, while the European Left kept its distance to avoid angering Spanish radical left parties.
Sumar is a leftist coalition encompassing major radical left and small green parties, but as Sánchez called for snap elections, the alliance rushed into campaign mode and did not have time to mature and completely define itself.
With growing discontent among some of its party members, it is unclear whether the coalition will repeat for the EU elections.
Still, the European Greens, with little presence in Spain, are capitalising on Sumar to increase their political space and strengthen ties with the coalition leader, acting vice-president and Minister of Labour Yolanda Díaz.
“I think if you look at what we want as greens and what Yolanda and Sumar want in Spain and Europe, you see that there is a lot, a lot, a lot of overlap. So for me […] looking at how we can cooperate now and after 2024 [EU elections], is obvious”, Greens/EFA group co-president Terry Reintke told Euractiv.
“From our side, we have shown that there is a lot of openness and a lot of readiness to do it”, she added, recognising that “there are still a lot of unknowns”.
With this objective, the Greens organised the Green Social Summit in Madrid, bringing green parties from across Europe together with Sumar officials, activists, and civil society.
During the summit, Díaz made very clear her intentions to work with the Greens at the EU level and boost the European Green Deal.
“We need to expand our alliances to push in this latter direction. We need the Green family”, Díaz said during the summit.
“We look up to June 2024 to build a project that is European, critical and transformative, green and feminist, broad and inclusive […] we have to build a green and progressive wave”, she added.
Ahead of Spain’s national elections in July, several Green officials, including Green Party co-chair Mélanie Vogel, travelled to Spain to campaign with Sumar.
The Left’s awkward position
The Left group in the European Parliament will also visit Madrid in mid-October. The group’s rapprochement with Sumar, though, will be less ostentatious, as it will just encompass routine study days instead of a fully-fledged summit.
The main reason is Izquierda Unida and Podemos, Sumar members of the EU Parliament’s Left group. The two parties are challenging the coalition, and whether they will run together for the EU elections is unclear.
With little time to clarify the relationship between Sumar coalition members and their role within the all-encompassing umbrella party before the snap national elections in July, Izquierda Unida and Podemos are now complaining that Yolanda Díaz’s Sumar does not respect their voice and political space.
Asked whether they would run with Sumar again, Podemos MEPs Idoia Villanueva and Eugenia Rodríguez avoided expressing a position.
“At this moment in Podemos, we are completely involved in the process of participation and debate that we have opened to strengthen our organisation and define what our roadmap will be”, Villanueva told Euractiv.
With all progressive political forces now focused on forming a government, Sumar’s coalition talks for the EU elections will not be concluded before January, Euractiv understands.
(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)
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