The state management of Podemos has made a turn in its strategy of local pacts when there are hours left for the registration of coalition lists to be closed for the elections of 28-M, breaking all alliance with the rest of the left parties in the participation More Madrid or Forward Andalusia. The measure adjusts the tactics of Podemos in the face of the announced candidacy of generals of Sumar, headed by Yolanda Díaz, at the same time that it has closed regional pacts in 10 of the 12 communities in competition, the highest number since the party has existed.
The coup by the state leadership has caused the gesture of strength towards its allies to turn into an internal crisis between the leadership and the weakened local and territorial structures, which have already expressed their desire to participate in the act of Sumar during the citizens' council of April 1.
On Thursday, the state leadership forced the regional leadership of Madrid to drop the pacts that its local organizations of Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Tres Cantos had reached with the rest of the left forces. The last-minute decision, which - according to party sources - was not discussed at the citizens' council or at Monday's coordination council, was taken against the local assemblies themselves and against the agreement that the regional leadership had given for the negotiation of pacts. In the case of Cadiz, where Podemos was one of the three formations of Esquerra Gaditana that finalized a pact with Endavant Cadiz - the party of Teresa Rodríguez and José María González Kichi -, the decision to run alone was announced yesterday.
As for the Madrid towns of Tres Cantos and Rivas, preserving these two small islands from the hostilities declared elsewhere seemed to be a shared desire that allowed a minimal hope of understanding with the generals in mind. Officially, the reason for the cancellation of the pacts is the refusal of Més Madrid to coalition with Unides 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 management, in conversation with La Vanguardia, have insisted that their intention was to weave "a project of global unity to win the Community of Madrid and all the municipalities" and point out Mónica García, leader and candidate of More Madrid, as responsible that has not been possible. Més Madrid alleges that "its position has not changed at all" and accuses the purple leadership of putting its state tactics before the interests of the people of Madrid. In the affected municipalities, IU, Equo and Guanyem continue with their alliance and have avoided entering into an exchange of reproaches with the lilacs.
The proving ground for what was supposed to be the most important experiment for the reconfiguration of space on the left is contaminated. And the big campaign event that was being worked on in Rivas, which was supposed to be 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 suspense Among the allied formations, there are not a few who assure this newspaper that this is the sole purpose of the state leadership of Podemos when it blew up the agreement: to prevent that act of campaigning, with Díaz at the head, in Rivas, a symbolic city in the metropolitan area because it has been governed by IU since 1991.
To the crisis of Podemos in Madrid and the knock on the door in Cádiz, the implosion of Podemos Asturias is added, in an all-against-all that affects Oviedo and has caused a major scandal in Langreo, head of the Nalón basin - a another feud of the left where IU has alternated the mayorship with the PSOE since 1979 - where the primaries were annulled after it lost the list of the incumbent 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 are keeping 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 indeed be in Catalonia, a calm lagoon of the agitated space to the left of the PSOE - where 174 joint candidacies are presented, to the point that two leaders of En Comú Podem, Jéssica Albiach and Jaume Asens, are today in the Podemos event in Zaragoza. Although - unlike other years - neither will be a speaker.
