Spanish left-wing platform Sumar registers as party ahead of snap elections

Left-wing electoral platform Sumar has been formally registered as a party to bring together civil society, academia, and leftist political forces together, hoping to counterbalance the rise of the right in Spain’s snap elections scheduled for 23 July.

On 2 April, Spain’s Minister of Labour Yolanda Díaz (Podemos/EU Left) announced her candidacy for the Spanish presidency for the Sumar platform, which seeks to bring together all political forces at the left of PSOE (S&D).

With Sanchez announcing snap elections after a major left-camp defeat in the regional and municipal elections on Sunday, Diaz swiftly formalised Sumar in the form of an “instrumental” party on Tuesday hoping “to win an election that will define our country for a generation”.

The new party called Sumar Movement seeks to be a political structure to include civil society and academia in the electoral lists, and to form a coalition with the rest of the leftist forces, EL PAIS reports.

“Sumar is the only tool capable of defending what the progressive coalition government has achieved in recent years and taking it much further”, Díaz wrote in a statement.

The new party aims to unify and mobilise voters to give the current left-wing coalition, formed by PSOE and Podemos, a second chance in the upcoming general elections and to prevent far-right party VOX (ECR) and right-wing Partido Popular (EPP) from reaching government.

With only ten days left to formally register a coalition, almost all leftist political forces are aligning with Sumar, while its current governing coalition partner Podemos, which has so far resisted an agreement, is still in negotiations with the newly formed party.

With significant losses in the regional and municipal elections and the announcement of snap elections, however, Podemos has accelerated its alignment with Sumar.

“I want to tell you that we are already working to give progressive citizens the news they have been waiting for so long: that this political space will stand united in the elections and we will go out and win”, Social Rights Minister and Podemos Secretary General Ione Belarra told a press conference.

(Max Griera | EURACTIV.com)