Alberto Garzón completes "the step aside" that he began last summer, just before the elections, when he announced that he was leaving the political front line after twelve years in the Congress of Deputies. In a letter sent to the Izquierda Unida militancy this Friday, the former Minister of Consumer Affairs in the previous legislature has announced that he is ceasing his responsibility as coordinator of the party.
"I want to complete the 'step aside' that I announced in June. This means that I will not only hand over the baton within the Council of Ministers, but that I will also cease my responsibility as coordinator of Izquierda Unida. This is a very thoughtful decision and one that "It was part of the roadmap that I personally assumed a long time ago. I have waited for this moment to synchronize my final decision with the change of political phase," he explains.
Garzón had been at the head of the political party since 2016 and resigned from being part of Sumar's electoral lists for the July 23 elections. In this way, his position as minister ceases with the formation of the new Government after the investiture of Pedro Sánchez is formalized.
In the letter, Garzón emphasizes that it has been an "honor" to represent IU and that he is resigning from the position with a "consolidated" organization and as "essential political capital" for the future of the country. With this decision, IU must undertake a process to replace Garzón at the head of the formation, who was re-elected as leader in 2021, which will go through the convocation in the future of a Federal Assembly to elect a new federal coordinator.
After emphasizing that his training is a key "tool" to "assemble" the complex ecosystem of "left-wing forces," Garzón defends in his letter that in his administration dialogue and generating "internal peace" prevailed, given that IU "had experienced in its history too many fratricidal disputes".
However, Garzón emphasizes that being on the political front line "has not been without costs" and this has also had a "decisive influence on his decision." "Militancy is very sacrificial, and the front line of politics is nothing but its exponential version. During all these years I have seen the best and the worst of politics, and both things have passed through me relentlessly. I have spent too much time trying with people who do not take care of their fellow men and for whom politics is just a way to crush those who think differently," he admits in his message to the IU bases.
Dear colleague,
A few months ago I publicly announced that I would not be a deputy in Congress again, after 12 years representing Izquierda Unida and Unidas Podemos there. I stated that he continued, however, with my functions as minister and as coordinator of IU. We had a difficult general election ahead of us and it was my responsibility to continue dedicating my energy to achieving the best possible result for Sumar and to once again form a progressive coalition government.
Despite the difficulties, we have finally achieved it. We dispelled the threat of a reactionary government on election night, but what remained was a complicated negotiation that, fortunately, ended well. Now Spanish politics moves to a new phase, with a new government and many challenges to address.
With this change of phase I want to complete the step aside that I announced in June. This means that I will not only hand over the baton within the Council of Ministers, but I will also cease my responsibility as coordinator of Izquierda Unida. This is a very thoughtful decision and was part of the roadmap that I personally assumed a long time ago. I have waited for this moment to synchronize my final decision with the change of political phase.
I want to once again express my most absolute gratitude to all the people who have accompanied me throughout all these years. I can't name them all, because there are too many of them, but I'm sure you know that I wouldn't have been able to tackle my tasks without your shelter and affection. There are also many experiences that I have lived during this time, and I hope to have contributed at least modestly to improving the lives of working families in our country.
It has been a great honor to be able to represent an organization like IU, which has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people. When I joined at the age of 18, I did so with the conviction that we had to add hands and minds to the task of transforming our societies. Although anger was already beating in my heart for the injustices committed in all parts of the world, the specific decision to join IU was prompted by the example of those who were fighting, assuming great personal cost, against a real estate bubble that at the beginning of the century It trampled the lives and nature of the Malaga coast. Soon I began to see many other similar examples throughout Spain. Those red-green struggles fuel my militant spirit even today.
To be honest, I would never have imagined that the day would come when I would take over overall coordination. A responsibility that other people who were a reference for me in capital letters had accepted before me, such as my colleague, and then friend, Julio Anguita. Being coordinator came quickly and, before that, I had already assumed the responsibility of running in a general election that many would have wanted to be the last for IU. I think each of us still vibrates when we remember how we approached those decisive days at the end of 2015. Since then we have gone through very difficult times together, and we had to take on tasks that seemed impossible. I admit that I have seen the abyss many times during all these long and intense years, as has happened to most of you. However, in each of those moments we have been able to recover and build something useful and beautiful at the same time.
I am aware that I have been a consequence of those turbulent moments in national politics. Without a doubt, without the mobilizations of 15-M and without the breakdown of the traditional party system in 2014, things would have been very different. Those events put IU in an immense bind, because our political force largely embodied the values and principles that wanted to make their way into our society, especially in the younger generations, but it was not us as a political force who made these new electoral gains. aspirations.
Reflecting on this fact, I have sometimes resorted to a metaphor that Otto Neurath designed to explain how science works, and that I extrapolate to our own field. You will quickly understand why, since Neurath said the following:
“Let's imagine that we are like sailors who on the high seas have to change the shape of their boat to face the destruction of the storm. To transform the keel of your ship you will have to use driftwood or perhaps boards from the old structure. They will not be able, however, to take the ship to port to rebuild it again. And while they work they will have to remain on the old structure of the ship and fight against the storm, the runaway waves and the unleashed winds.”
For years, the entire IU militancy has been that crew of sailors. Our ship has had to be repaired on the high seas, with fewer resources and more difficulties than other vessels that, in addition, always seemed to be much more attractive and powerful. We have not lacked expertise or will, but the situation has always been extremely complicated.
And yet, thanks to our collective efforts, the situation today is far from what it was ten years ago. Our ship is practically repaired and continues to navigate with ease following the compass that points to socialism. IU is today not only consolidated, but is a force with essential political capital for the future of this country. The seriousness, experience and responsibility of IU is a guarantee for our society, but it is also a fundamental tool to assemble our very complex ecosystem of leftist forces. Hopefully all these forces will not forget the importance of a well-constructed unit in the future. And, if possible, woven on fraternity and not on the simple and brute correlation of forces.
It will of course be the IU membership who will have to evaluate my management at the head of the organization during these seven years. I will only add that I am personally very proud of the work carried out, which has been inspired by the republican values of dialogue, fraternity and radical democracy. I have tried to ensure that conflicts, inherent to politics, could be addressed through dialogue and that, especially when the differences were great, the political project was never threatened. IU had experienced too many fratricidal disputes in its history, and one of my objectives has always been to preserve internal peace on the basis of mutual respect. I hope that even those who have never voted favorably for my political positions can at least share this point. However, I cannot help but acknowledge that I know I have made mistakes. Some of them I already know, since I have had time to meditate on them, but others I will probably discover as time goes by. I only hope that there are many more successes and that the final balance allows the militancy to recognize a positive contribution from my time in the coordination.
I want to finish by pointing out that my personal contribution to all this has not been without costs, and this has also had a decisive influence on my decision. Militancy is very sacrificial, and the first line of politics is nothing but its exponential version. During all these years I have seen the best and the worst of politics, and both things have passed through me relentlessly. I have spent too much time dealing with people who do not care for their fellow men and for whom politics is just a way to crush those who think differently. That is not my conception of politics. That is why I believe that one of our challenges for the future will be to build spaces that integrate feminist teachings in a comprehensive way, that is, assuming the central role that care has in the reproduction of life in all its dimensions.
Personally, I am very happy to take this step and to be able to dedicate more time to taking care of my family and my daughters. As I said a few months ago, they have suffered more than anyone else from my restlessness and sorrows, my continued absences and my seasonal irritability. I now want to recover time and energy to be able to dedicate myself to many other activities that have always given me more pleasure and that have been put on hold for too many years. As it cannot be otherwise, I will continue doing politics, which for me is the noble art of transforming society, from the humble and necessary trench offered by the grassroots militant of an organization like ours. I will try, with as many tools as I can, to continue contributing to building an ecosocialist society; the only viable and democratic brake on the advance of barbarism and environmental destruction.
Thanks and good luck.
Health and Republic,
Alberto Garzon
