The state leadership Podemos has given a turn to its strategy of local pacts within hours of closing the registration of coalition lists for the 28-M elections, breaking all alliance with the rest of the left in the participation of Más Madrid or Adelante Andalucía. The measure adjusts the tactics of Podemos before the announced candidacy of generals of Sumar, headed by Yolanda Díaz, at the same time that it has closed autonomous pacts in 10 of the 12 communities in contention, the largest number since the party has existed.
The swerve of the state leadership has caused the gesture of force towards its allies to reverse into an internal crisis between the leadership and the weakened local and territorial structures, which already expressed their desire to participate in the Sumar act during the citizen council of 1 of April.
On Thursday, the state leadership forced the Madrid regional leadership to overthrow the pacts that their local organizations in Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Tres Cantos had reached with the rest of the forces of the left. The last-minute decision, which -according to party sources- was not discussed in the citizen council nor in the coordination council last Monday, was taken against the local assemblies themselves and the placet that the regional leadership had given for the negotiation of pacts. In the case of Cádiz, where Podemos was one of the three formations of the Izquierda Gaditana that finalized a pact with Adelante Cádiz – the party of Teresa Rodríguez and José María González Kichi – the decision to attend alone was announced yesterday.
As for the Madrid towns of Tres Cantos and Rivas, preserving these two small islands from the hostilities declared in other places seemed a shared desire that allowed a minimal hope of understanding with an eye on the general ones. Officially, the reason for the cancellation of the pacts is the refusal of Más Madrid to join forces with Unidas Podemos in the city council and the community of Madrid, a decision that Mónica García's formation communicated to Podemos and IU months ago. Sources from the regional leadership, in conversation with La Vanguardia, have insisted that their intention was to weave "a global unity project to win the Community of Madrid and all the municipalities" and point to Mónica García, leader and candidate of More Madrid, as responsible for it not being possible. More Madrid alleges that "their positions have not changed one iota" and they accuse the purple leadership of putting their state tactics before the interests of the people of Madrid. In the affected municipalities, IU, Equo and Ganemos continue with their alliance and have avoided entering into a crossroads of reproaches with the purple ones.
The testing ground for what was called to be the largest experiment in reconfiguring the space of the left is contaminated. And the great campaign event that was being worked on in Rivas, which should have been a general rehearsal of what Sumar intends, given the list of formations included in the agreement, with the presence of the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, is now in progress. the air. Among the allied formations, there are many who assure this newspaper that this is the sole purpose of the state leadership of Podemos in blowing up the agreement: to prevent this act of campaigning, with Díaz at the helm, in Rivas, a symbolic city in the metropolitan area because it has been governed by IU since 1991.
Added to the crisis of Podemos in Madrid and the slamming of the door in Cádiz is the implosion of Podemos Asturies, in an all against all that affects Oviedo and that has caused a major scandal in Langreo, head of the Nalón Basin –another stronghold of the left in which IU has alternated the mayoralty with the PSOE since 1979–, where the primaries were annulled after he lost the list of the acting regional leader, Rafael Palacios –with Sofía Castañón out–, who will finally be a candidate after the decision of the state guarantee commission to validate an alternative process to the primaries.
Meanwhile, Yolanda Díaz and her Sumar team have not yet decided what their role will be in the 28-M campaign, but they keep all possibilities open. This week, the vice president assured that her role will be to help prevent the right from gaining ground. At the moment it is not ruled out that there are acts of support for candidates from more than one list where unity has not been achieved, even joint acts.
Díaz will be in Catalonia, a calm lagoon in the hectic space to the left of the PSOE -where 174 joint candidacies are presented-, to the point that two leaders of En Comú Podem, Jessica Albiach and Jaume Asens, are today in the act of We can in Zaragoza. Despite the fact that –unlike other years– neither of them will be speakers.
