Sale of weapons to Israel, slam of the door on the proposal to include the right to abortion in the Constitution, Criminal Procedure law, expansion of the port of Valencia... Sumar had been taking grievances from his government partner for several weeks. The request for explanations and the filing of formal complaints to the PSOE ministers dominated the Monday interventions of its spokesperson, Ernest Urtasun, whose positive proposals to balance the balance were beginning to be scarce in his arguments. In fact, there was nothing to suspect that this past week would be different. But it has been.
In one fell swoop, issues championed by Sumar such as the recognition of the State of Palestine – which Pedro Sánchez has placed at the epicenter of his geopolitical strategy to distance himself from the Koldo case –, the suppression of the so-called golden visa – as access for non-EU elites to a residence visa in exchange for investing in real estate or financial assets with a value equal to or greater than two million–, or the processing of the ILP to regularize undocumented immigrants with residence prior to 2021 have crept into the political debate allowing their parliamentary spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, boast of being the “engine” of the Government and setting its agenda.
It matters little to Sumar that the change of direction of the PSOE was due to “electoralism”, a mere matter of “convenience” or due to the unimaginable “divine help” of certain associations linked to the Church. The fact is that the formation led by Yolanda Díaz has come across an unexpected supply of oxygen just when the atmosphere began to become more charged.
At Sumar they understand that the “honest” thing would be not to enter a competition for trying to assign names and surnames to “initiatives of great social consensus.” But “everyone knows what is happening,” pointed out sources from the confederal space, given the “undisguised” determination of the Government to appropriate measures that the alternative left to the PSOE has been championing for years.
Even so, Errejón avoided being distracted by the struggle for the paternity of the social measures placed on the table – and which the extension of the Budgets threatens to put on hold until the next academic year. And he took advantage of last Wednesday's plenary session in Congress focused on international politics to delve into his initiatives on Palestine and the Sahara and try to push the PSOE towards its postulates.
In a widely celebrated intervention within the plurinational group, Sumar's spokesperson chose to raise the tone between partners. And after listening to the President of the Government's position on the Middle East conflict, he relied on "the historical commitments of Spain and the resolutions of the United Nations" to warn him that "what is valid for Palestine is valid for the Sahara", in reference to the right of the Sahrawis to free self-determination.”
With the wind in his favor, Errejón sharpened the verb. And knowing that the issue of military rearmament that the EU is proposing to the Member States against the Russian giant could erode the PSOE in the European elections, he attacked the commitment made by Sánchez to raise military spending to 2% of GDP.
“Aid to Ukraine must be aimed at achieving a negotiated solution and preventing the war from becoming entrenched, not at the warlike and militaristic escalation that is sweeping through Europe today,” he reproached him, demanding that Sumar play a more leading role than the one he now plays in the Council. of Ministers. “Coalitions cannot be saved alone or separately.”
Added to Sumar's slight improvement as a Government partner is the break ball saved internally. The negotiating team managed to fit the diabolical puzzle of the European electoral list for which, after the schism with Podemos and the disaster in Galicia, the polls grant it fewer seats in the Brussels Parliament than coalition formations. And after a threat of a breakup by some of the parties involved, which even forced Yolanda Díaz to cancel part of her Wednesday agenda to get involved in the first person, the different pieces of the political device led by the second vice president agreed on the main starting positions.
Number 1, at the proposal of Díaz, will be the until now director of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR), Estrella Galán. Numbers 2 and 3 have fallen to the commons – with Jaume Asens as a candidate – and Compromís, respectively. Y Más Madrid reluctantly accepted fifth place, admitting to having sacrificed its organizational interests for the “collective commitment” of the brand.
Only IU remains uncertain as to whether he will finally accept the fourth place assigned or break the deck by aspiring to higher levels. But seeing the positions from which each of them started, in Sumar they smile, comforted for having finally achieved a little oxygen with which to breathe courage into their electorate after a rocky start to the project.
