Belarra presses Díaz one day before launching his candidacy: “It is enough that this afternoon Podemos and Sumar sign a declaration”

We can again transfer the pressure to Yolanda Díaz. In full tension due to the party’s decision to be absent tomorrow Sunday from the presentation of the vice president as Sumar’s candidate, the political project that she promotes, if an agreement is not reached beforehand, her general secretary, Ione Belarra, has made a last public appeal . “Yolanda Díaz has in her hand that tomorrow Podemos is at the presentation of her candidacy. A long awaited presentation. It is enough that this afternoon Podemos and Sumar sign a declaration in which we commit ourselves to holding primaries open to all citizens to choose the best possible team for the next legislature”, the Minister of Social Rights also stated in her speech this Saturday before the State Citizen Council, the party’s highest management body.

In private, however, both parties already admit that this agreement will not come before Sunday. Despite some contacts in recent days, the talks have made no progress since last weekend. The leader of Podemos has also claimed the role of her formation as the “engine of the main changes” in the country, and an “essential” force to “revalidate” the coalition government in the next legislature.

“I ask Yolanda Díaz that we close that agreement now and that we get together to campaign. To tour Spain, to support the regional and municipal candidates of United We Can. Because these elections are key to the lives of millions of people in our country”, Belarra claimed. Less than 24 hours after the launch of Díaz’s candidacy, both Podemos and Izquierda Unida have met their addresses this Saturday in what will be their last meeting before the May elections. The local and regional elections open the electoral cycle this 2023, which will end, as planned, with the general elections in December.

The two formations arrive at this appointment with radically opposed speeches on Sumar and the role of the organization. While Alberto Garzón’s party (IU) sees an “opportunity” in this platform and has put “all its political capital” at the service of the vice president’s project, Podemos still has many reservations. Negotiations between the party founded by Pablo Iglesias and the vice president’s team, open since the beginning of the year, have intensified in recent weeks, but Podemos has refused to attend the meeting if the foundations of a “coalition agreement” were not laid beforehand. ” that requires the holding of open primaries. Díaz, however, has ruled out agreeing on the definition of this process now because he defends that the decision must integrate the rest of the organizations called to be part of Sumar.

“Podemos is the engine of the main changes, transformations that the country has experienced in the last decade,” boasted the party’s general secretary, Ione Belarra. “It is legitimate that there are some people, even within our political space, who think that in the next legislature Podemos has to play a secondary role within the space for change. I don’t think so. I do not think so. That the strength of Podemos is absolutely essential to revalidate the next coalition government and continue promoting the pending transformations”, insisted Belarra, for whom “the only way to resolve this debate is with primaries open to all citizens”.

Upon his arrival at the IU Federal Coordinator, Alberto Garzón has made a new “appeal” to the formation of Belarra to attend tomorrow’s meeting, but without red lines. “To encourage the compañeros and compañeras of Podemos, with whom we are precisely going to the elections in many parts of this country, to come tomorrow like the rest of the political forces, without any type of condition, because there will be time later. of this act of specifying everything that needs to be specified so that the political parties feel comfortable”, stated the Minister of Consumption. “It is the smartest thing, what the public is waiting for, and what the IU militancy is working for,” he reiterated.

Except for a last-minute surprise, the state leadership of the Belarra party will not be at the event on Sunday, which will be attended by those responsible for training in Galicia and Navarra (Borja San Ramón and Begoña Alfaro) and the deputies Txema Guijarro (secretary of the parliamentary group) and Antón Gómez Reino. The third vice president of Congress, Gloria Elizo, the Balearic vice president Pedro Yllanes or the candidate for the presidency of the Principality in May, Covadonga Tomé, have also conveyed their support.