Yolanda Díaz imposes a clause against a split from Podemos: if they leave, they lose 23% of the coalition's money

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The unity between Sumar and Podemos casts more doubts than certainties on the coexistence between both spaces during the electoral campaign, as well as later in the parliamentary group that will be configured for the next four years. To tie the purple party short and prevent it from going free, Yolanda Díaz's negotiators tried to shield themselves by establishing a series of clauses in the political document signed by the 15 parties. In this role, all the rules of the game are agreed, as well as the details of the coalition, from the positions on the lists – many of them with names and surnames – to the distribution of money. Signing that global agreement was the unavoidable condition to then be in a second document, the official one that was presented late on Friday before the Electoral Board to register the coalition.

One of the clauses of the agreement tries to prevent the theoretical eight deputies of Podemos from taking advantage of the fact that they have already entered Congress to leave the Mixed Group or another parliamentary group that exists, from which they would have a free hand to establish their own political strategy without having to be subject to the guidelines of Yolanda Díaz.

The document stipulates that the candidacy of Sumar will be reflected in Congress in "a single parliamentary group" with all its deputies. The operation of this, continues the text of this clause, "will be governed by a regulation that will respect the agreements adopted in these protocols and will be agreed between the political forces that make up the coalition".

From the experience of 2015, Podemos knows that it cannot form its own group for having competed against Sumar, but in reality, no matter how much the political agreement says, its deputies do have the ability to go to the Mixed whenever they want. It already happened in the middle of the last legislature within the group of Unidas Podemos with Meri Pita and also in that of Ciudadanos with Pablo Cambronero. Both abandoned the discipline of their parties to fly at their own risk.

The money

The way to dissuade Podemos from a hypothetical split is money. For the clause itself would not prevent anything, since the minutes of the deputies are individual and are not the property of the parties or the candidacies. The political agreement establishes that the purples will receive 23% of the subsidies to which the coalition is entitled for its operation. This money is injected each month by the Ministry of the Interior directly into the parties in the stipulated proportion.

If one of the 15 political forces that are deciding to leave the parliamentary group, it would immediately lose the right to all those revenues. Well, it would be absolutely out of the covenant. In the Joint Group it would manage a much lower income and would also have a much smaller number of attendees.

Another of the interesting clauses of the political agreement refers to the electoral campaign. The parties are committed to following the line marked by those responsible for Sumar – Díaz has already named a few names – and does not give any reason for there to be political forces that can go their own way.

This issue worried about the entry of Podemos into the coalition. Especially after seeing the eccentricities he did behind IU's back in places like the Community of Madrid, with a canvas rebuking the residents of the Salamanca neighborhood of the capital, with another canvas attacking Ayuso's brother – in addition to t-shirts – or with the poster against Florentino Pérez.

Adding shields the control of the campaign and the messages and actions with that clause. Likewise, such was the interest in some forces in this matter that in the bilateral pact with Más Madrid it is established that this party will co-direct the campaign in the scope of the Community with the Sumar team, in a collegiate direction. This would control Podemos.

Inclusion of Irene Montero

Political agreement is the key to everything. It is also the reason that prevents a review of the conditions, no matter how much Podemos has opted to open a new offensive on Díaz to include Irene Montero in the candidacy in the time remaining to register the electoral lists. The last day of the deadline is June 19.

That agreement stipulates the positions that each party has and in many cases the names of the people who will occupy them appear. This is the case of the starting posts that Podemos has reserved. That is why they cannot be modified under any circumstances. Because it is part of an agreement approved and signed by the 15 political actors.

The document dictates that Podemos has the fifth position for Madrid (Ione Belarra), the fourth for Barcelona (Lilith Verstrynge) and the heads of the list for Álava (Roberto Uriarte), Granada (Martina Velarde), Guipúzcoa (Pilar Garrido), Murcia (Javier Sánchez Serna), Navarra (Idoia Villanueva) and Las Palmas (Noemi Santana). It is true that Podemos has seven other numbers one, but without real options to be elected (Ávila, Badajoz, Cáceres, Guadalajara, Palencia, Segovia and Teruel). Placing Irene Montero there or Pablo Echenique in any of them would be in vain.

For Sumar the negotiation is already "closed" and what has been agreed is what is embodied in the document. Therefore, the new offensive unleashed yesterday by Podemos to pressure and include Montero is going to crash against that wall. Belarra in a letter to the militants and Verstrynge in statements to the media stressed that they do not accept the "veto" and that they will extend their demand "until the last minute" because it is a "mistake". Moreover, the purples claim that the signing of the pact occurred "without agreement".

After Belarra's public intervention last Friday, Podemos received an ultimatum. There is no more negotiation. Either the political document was signed – and then the coalition – or they were out. Podemos accepted at the cost of "sacrificing" Montero because the alternative of going alone was much worse. Pablo Iglesias described yesterday as "very humiliating" the exclusions of the minister and Pablo Echenique, said that the positions on the lists that the party has are a "contempt" but blessed that his colleagues in the leadership "succeed" in putting ahead the need for unity that "the very dignity" of its formation.

Trying to turn the page on this mess so he could focus on the campaign and speak to voters, Díaz celebrated the pact as "the best political deal for Spain." "You asked us for an agreement and we have achieved it."

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