• Profile Yolanda Díaz, 25 years of climbing, 'she did not want to', among exquisite political corpses: "She betrayed me"
  • Politics Belarra redoubles the pressure on Yolanda Díaz 24 hours after her act: "It is in her hand"

Yolanda Díaz embarks on her own path for now without Podemos towards the general elections, but today's act is not the end of that journey, but the beginning. For this reason, and because there is concern on both sides to seek an agreement, if only for their interest, negotiations will resume with force after the May elections. It will be then when Sumar and Podemos put back on the table the points that separate them and that, for the moment, are delaying the terms of a peaceful coexistence. Otherwise, the threat of a Podemos candidacy with Irene Montero flies.

THE ROLE OF PODEMOS. The root of the conflict and what derives everything else has to do with the quotas of power and with the role that Podemos must have in the reconfiguration of the alternative space to the PSOE. Since 2014, with Pablo Iglesias, the purple party has been the hegemonic force and has always imposed its conditions and interests. But the leadership of space has changed hands and, with it, opens a door to a new correlation of forces. Especially when there are parties on the rise and when Podemos, in addition, is in its lowest hours despite being in the Government. Iglesias himself acknowledged that these were actually the terms of the "internal struggle" that is maintained, since there were "sister forces" that "have seen the moment to change that hegemony", in reference to IU or the commons of Colau. The former secretary general warned that there are "those who intend to humiliate" his party, but sent a resounding warning: Podemos "has never allowed itself to be humiliated and will not do so now."

Why is this so important? Because power is reflected in positions on the electoral lists, in the control of the coalition, in general, and of the parliamentary group of Congress, in particular. Because it means distributing economic resources and also in the allocation of assistants.

Find out more

Politics.

Yolanda Díaz ties the support of fifteen parties to her act in the absence of Podemos

  • Writing: ÁLVARO CARVAJAL Madrid

Yolanda Díaz ties the support of fifteen parties to her act in the absence of Podemos

PRIMARY. The way to challenge this scenario has been to challenge Díaz to hold an "open primary" to settle with votes what weight each party should have. Podemos wants to assert its greater number of militants with respect to the rest of the forces and Díaz herself, which does not have a party structure, also aware of its ability to direct its supporters to increase and reject candidates.

Podemos and Sumar have been negotiating on all this but the talks have run aground when it has had to be put in writing. The last time last Monday, when the last real attempt took place. Díaz's team even offered a political declaration pledging to hold "primaries" to choose the lists, but for the purples it was not enough because they demand that they must be "open", and they are suspicious that Sumar does not want to assume something that they consider minimal. And, by primaries could be understood from a ratification of lists agreed in offices to processes with delegated vote. Podemos calls for an open census in which any citizen can register to participate.

With the open primaries, Podemos would have more capacity to keep positions on lists. It would avoid entering into a distribution of seats in negotiations with other forces. Not surprisingly, among the fifteen parties behind Díaz there are a large number that are autonomous. That is, forces that would ask to have a leading role in their communities. Among them are Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia (with IU and PCE), Aragon or Navarra. Which greatly shrinks the space of Podemos to place its own.

RELATIONSHIP WITH 'THE OTHERS'. This leads us to how to guarantee the coexistence between very different parties and with cases of turbulent relations with each other. Adding will need rules and sharing responsibilities. No one, not even Podemos, questions Díaz's role as a leader, but yes, and this links with power, there are different visions on how they are managed. The party of Ione Belarra wants "a coalition with Sumar", and dispatches the rest of the forces as parties that are integrated within the platform created by the vice president. However, many of these organizations deny "bilateral" pacts between Podemos and Sumar and demand shared decision tables. For example, to debate in them how these primaries should be. Well, not everyone thinks the same way. Hence, Diaz does not want to set any conditions that can later generate problems.

THE MAY CAMPAIGN. The unity of the left has been working for months but all except Podemos are betting that the pacts will be closed in June, when the elections pass. This means that in May there will be forces called to enter Sumar competing with each other. What is Diaz going to do? Podemos, and yesterday Belarra asked him again, demands that he get involved and travel through Spain campaigning for the candidates of Unidas Podemos. However, she refuses to participate in those places where there is competition between potential allies. This rules out Madrid, Valencia or the Canary Islands, where Podemos is in a state of nerves about its results. She has only said that she will surely campaign for Colau.

SPEECH. Podemos and Díaz are separated by styles and also by the way of negotiating with the PSOE. It was seen with the gag law, that Podemos was very acid with Diaz's negotiators, with the shipment of weapons to Ukraine or with the Budget pacts. Pragmatism versus "all or nothing."

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more

  • Can
  • Add
  • PSOE
  • IU
  • United We Can
  • Pablo Iglesias
  • Irene Montero