• Sumar Yolanda Díaz takes over from Podemos rejecting "tutelas": "I don't belong to anyone... I want to be the first president of Spain"
  • Opinion Yolanda believes it and can petar... And Sanchez is good for

If the act of Sumar already looked bad for Podemos, the conclusion is that it was even worse. Yolanda Díaz flies without "tutelage" or "debts" – (in)direct darts to Iglesias – but also without looking back for the laggards. He did not make in his speech any explicit reference to the purple party, nor any gesture of recognition or that could be read as an outstretched hand to redirect the stormy relationship. On the contrary, it proclaimed its independence to lead the space to the left of the left, even challenging the PSOE.

The novelty of Sunday was not her burial of Podemos, a confirmation, but that "I want to be the first president of Spain" that points to Pedro Sánchez, her guarantor in the motion of censure. Díaz had the support of a former PSOE deputy, trans activist, Carla Antonelli, who recently left those acronyms; he saw among his guests a former secretary general of CCOO who was a deputy of the PSOE, Antonio Gutiérrez, and was received by a celebrity, Jorge Javier Vázquez, who campaigned with Ángel Gabilondo in the Madrid elections of 2021.

On Díaz, socialist sources warned from this newspaper, a week ago: "His speech does not differ practically from that made by the president, it is a risky bet to join the fate of the PSOE to his figure. Remember what happened with Manuela Carmena, it was played to promote a person well seen by the left, and that weakened the Socialists in Madrid. That alert was a confirmation yesterday, along with the free takeoff of Podemos.

He barely left an isolated message of concord in a purple key: "There are many people to add" and "we are going to join all of them." In contrast, he overwhelmed the leaders present in affection and offered his moment of acclamation to candidates such as Mónica García and Rita Maestre, of Más Madrid, and Joan Ribó, of Compromís, who will compete against Podemos, and also against the PSOE, of course, in the May elections.

Podemos was not only cornered. He saw how the greatest reference of that political space, at its media peak, complimented three rivals with a campaign tone. Those gestures, cheered, infuriated Podemos. Juan Carlos Monedero: "She is a minister of Unidas Podemos and has campaigned for parties that compete against Unidas Podemos. That's noise. Thunderous." The party officially opted for silence. No comment.

New style

Díaz promulgated a new style of exercising leadership and understanding politics that breaks with the tradition of Podemos since 2017 and that challenges its instruction manual from top to bottom. Faced with a strategy of permanent offensive and the search for "polarization" or "hardness" – two nouns that he cited in his speech – he advocated getting rid of "noise" to make "politics with capital letters" and, he stressed, with "tenderness".

It is a friendly face that Pabloism already ridiculed of Íñigo Errejón when they parted ways, long before breaking up, and that then defenestrated for being a "docile" politician.

This is reflected in an evident way in the ideological flags. What is worrying for Podemos, even for the PSOE, is not what Yolanda Díaz said yesterday, but everything she did not say. He did not speak to the excess of the "extreme right" – like Iglesias or Sánchez – nor did he attack judges, journalists or "sewers". He ignored the war and NATO. He did not insult businessmen and bankers; He asked to distribute his profits. Nor did he allude to the monarchy.

He surpassed the President of the Government in positivism. And he placed Alberto Núñez Feijóo and his economic liberalism as a rival. He presented a social democratic agenda, very PSOE, to "win" a country "for the next decade" and claimed the achievements of a "useful policy" that sets aside the "politicking" – that was for ERC, for the labor reform – and focuses on tangible social transformations. It's not just that Díaz became independent from Podemos. It is that he challenged it while taking strides towards Sánchez.

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  • Can
  • PSOE
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • Add
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • United We Can
  • More Country
  • CKD
  • Joan Ribó
  • Compromís
  • Juan Carlos Monedero
  • NATO
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
  • More Madrid
  • Rita Maestre
  • Manuela Carmena
  • Angel Gabilondo
  • Jorge Javier Vazquez
  • CCOO