There are barely three weeks left until the deadline to register coalitions for the municipal elections on May 28 and the negotiations between Podem and the EU are not advancing. There are even those who say that, at this time, there is no more than specific contacts when time is short and in most of the autonomies that are holding regional elections the agreement has already been sealed for weeks.
In fact, Europa Press pointed out that there are pacts between the two formations in up to 9 autonomies of the 12 in which there will be elections and that pacts are only pending in three: Aragon, Asturias and the Valencian Community. With the difference that, in the first two, both parties had not gone to the elections together.
In the Valencian Community, the agreement is key for the left to maintain its options to retain the autonomous government. Although there are some polls that suggest that PSPV and Compromís could survive with a Unidas Podem space outside the Corts Valencianes, the truth is that it is an added risk that would make it difficult for the Botànic to continue.
Given the discretion of the negotiations, little has been revealed about the reasons for the lack of agreement between the parties led by Pilar Lima and Rosa Pérez. In fact, it seems that there is no agreement even with the name. United Podem does not like the US and the formula of putting the two acronyms at the same level is viewed with suspicion by the purple ones.
Thus, yesterday some of the differences became clear during the holding of the press conference after the Board of Trustees. Lima, coordinator of Podem, insisted on the need for an agreement "like the one in 2019." A phrase that is not trivial, because in the US they consider that the agreement of four years ago should not be based on because the circumstances are different (then the US was outside Les Corts and the Government).
Another of the discrepancies that became evident yesterday was the possibility of a global agreement. Lima pointed out on several occasions that Valencia (where she is running as a candidate) must be in the equation. Her fellow deputy, Estefanía Blanes, replied that in her party (EU) "municipal autonomy" is respected and "no conditions" are going to be placed on the groups. And it is that, although in the formation led by Rosa Pérez they understand that a global agreement can be sought, they believe that guidelines on the preparation of the lists cannot be imposed from the regional leadership on groups as important as those of Alicante or Valencia.
If any more distortion argument was missing, the future presentation of Yolanda Díaz as a candidate for the generals does not help either. While Podem distances himself from the vice president, in the US they are enthusiastic: "We are participating in programs and working groups."
