A week before the beginning of the 28-M electoral campaign, the relationship between the national leadership of Podemos and its candidate in Asturias is non-existent. The situation has reached such a surreal point that Irene Montero has gone to Gijón on Thursday to make a pre-election act without even inviting Cova Tomé to participate, which has made its own call in another point of the same city.

The ninguneo of the purple dome rises, then, to another level, after it began in November, after Tomé became the only critical candidate who won the primaries to a list promoted by the official leadership. Since then the headliner of Podemos in Asturias has been excluded from all party events in which Podemos has gathered its regional candidates, which have been several. That dynamic was replicated in the Spring Festival held in April in Zaragoza, which was the unofficial launch of the purple campaign, where Tomé appeared without invitation to force a meeting with Ione Belarra that did not occur either. In all this time, in addition to the fact that Tomé has given its support to Yolanda Díaz's Sumar project, Podemos is not promoting or supporting it from its official channels or social networks.

This invisibility has aggravated the internal crisis that Podemos is experiencing in Asturias, with an open confrontation between the ruling party (who control the party) and critics (who previously controlled it and who won the primaries to head the lists). This confrontation was especially virulent in the days before the registration of the candidacies before the Electoral Board. Tomé and a group of supporters barricaded themselves in the headquarters of Podemos in Gijón for six days as a measure of pressure to, they said, prevent them from being removed.

That maneuver did not prevent the Asturian leadership from excluding the number four of the candidacy, Jorge Fernández, for weighing on him a disqualification, as he justified, for a case of workplace harassment. His place on the list is occupied by Ana Taboada, close to the official leadership.

With the worst possible internal climate, Podemos faces the elections in Asturias. To which we must add that, once again, the scenario is repeated that the alternative left to the PSOE is divided into two lists: the purple and the IU. Only in Asturias and Aragon does this happen. In the other ten autonomous communities there is a coalition between the two.

Irene Montero has appeared this Thursday in Gijón to support only the purple candidate for the City Council, Olaya Suárez, while she has returned to ignore Tomé despite being the head of the regional list and being in the city. "Today I was invited by Olaya Suárez. I am very happy to be here, "justified the Minister of Equality.

Despite her comment, the number two of Podemos has been repeatedly asked about the absence of Tomé and the support that the leadership of her party will give her. Montero has responded that she "knows" that "she has the full support of the state leadership" of Podemos, "just like the rest of the regional candidates."

Questioned about how that support was going to be visible, Montero said: "In the campaign we campaign." And she has insisted that this Thursday she was invited by Suárez.

"To the purest 'Trumpist'"

Precisely the candidate of Podemos in Gijón was one of the most critical against Tomé for locking herself in the headquarters of the party in the city for six days to protest against the leaders of her party. In an intervention on the channel of Pablo Iglesias, Suárez accused her companions of exercising "political violence" against her, while the program in question accused these members of Podemos of acting "to the purest Trumpist".

In another part of the city, and without crossing with Montero, Tomé has denounced to journalists that "it is not new" the invisibility she suffers and has indicated that she was not even warned of the presence of Montero. "It has been happening since we won the primaries in November because we were not the option of Madrid to present ourselves to the elections in May," Tomé said, in statements collected by Efe. In them he has guaranteed that he will continue working in his campaign despite situations like today, since, in his opinion, "the reasonable" thing would be for a regional candidate to have knowledge of the visit of a minister.

On the campaign, Tomé has said he does not know what is going to happen. Well, it only has "an abstract message" from the Asturian leadership about the national leaders who will attend the events in the Principality.

This Friday a feminist act is held in Madrid with Montero and many candidates for the regional and municipal elections. Tomé will not be there again. Suarez is going to participate.

  • Can
  • Asturias
  • Irene Montero

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