X-ray of how Sumar is (and the future of Podemos)

Sumar is already a reality, just as it was intended, as an electoral platform for, in addition to incorporating candidates from civil society, regrouping the left from all over the country and reuniting on the same list organizations that, in the intense cycle 2014-2022, had been disintegrating into different formations or breaking its alliances.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
09 June 2023 Friday 10:21
12 Reads
X-ray of how Sumar is (and the future of Podemos)

Sumar is already a reality, just as it was intended, as an electoral platform for, in addition to incorporating candidates from civil society, regrouping the left from all over the country and reuniting on the same list organizations that, in the intense cycle 2014-2022, had been disintegrating into different formations or breaking its alliances.

In terms of public exposure of the drama, the cost has been high –especially in the case of Podemos, which, after boycotting the launch of the project on April 2, ended up sacrificing Irene Montero in the negotiation– and the balance of damages in electoral terms remains to be measured, but the outcome is what all the actors had proclaimed as their objective: the single list.

Movimiento Sumar, the instrumental party with which Yolanda Díaz's team plans to intermingle the lists with candidates from civil society -and which it will also use to re-capture members of Podemos removed by the current leadership-, has managed to gather around itself to the two most important state organizations in the political space, Izquierda Unida and Podemos, to the schism of the latter, Más País.

Also to the two green organizations resulting from the split of the first, Equo and Alternativa Verde, as well as the leading progressive organizations in their territories, such as Más Madrid, Compromís, Chunta Aragonesista, AraMés per Illes Balears and En Comú Podem.

These acronyms will be the hegemonic ones in Sumar's candidacies in their respective territories, given that their performance in the recent municipal and regional elections, within a framework of setbacks by progressive organizations, was generally much more solid, not only than the United brand We can, but even the PSOE in many constituencies.

Thus, while Podemos will have number one on the lists for Araba, Gipuzkoa, Navarra, Segovia, Ávila, Palencia, Guadalajara, Murcia, Cáceres, Badajoz, Granada and Las Palmas, and 5 for Madrid (which will occupy the general secretary of Podemos , Ione Belarra) the 4 for Barcelona (for the organization secretary, Lilith Verstrynge), in the Madrid list, headed by Yolanda Díaz, Más Madrid will have the numbers 3 (which will be occupied by the Saharawi activist Tesh Sidi), 4 (Íñigo Errejón) , 7 and 10.

In the same way, En Comú Podem will have the last word on the Catalan lists, and will integrate two Podemos candidates into them – in addition to the aforementioned number 4 for Barcelona, ​​his will be number 10. The same thing happens with Compromís in the Valencian Community, which will have numbers 1 and 2 for Valencia, the second places for Alicante and Castellón. AraMés will lead the lists for Illes Balears and La Chunta Aragonesista, for Zaragoza.

In this way, Sumar will be configured as a confederation of organizations, supported by the state structures of IU and Podemos, in which the territories will be represented according to their hegemonies and with the mortar of the candidacies of civil society that the Sumar Movement adds to the lists.