Podemos has experienced its most bitter electoral night with a very poor result throughout the country that has left the party out of Valencian and Madrid politics. Neither his candidate for the community of Madrid, Alejandra Jacinto, nor that of the Valencian Community, Héctor Illueca, have reached the 5% necessary to enter the autonomous parliaments, and neither have their municipal candidates in the Madrid capitals, Roberto Sotomayor. , and Valencian, Pilar Lima.
The balance is very hard with the formation led by the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra: in Asturias, Podemos loses 3 deputies and remains with 1, as in Aragón, where it has lost 4 minutes. In the Balearic Islands, the purples lose another 4 and are left with 2 seats, but outside the government, the same as in the Canary Islands, where they lose the 4 representatives they had. In Madrid they lose the 10 minutes that Pablo Iglesias achieved in 2021, and in the Valencian Community, the 8 seats they had. Only Irene de Miguel, in Extremadura, manages to repeat the 4 seats that she had, like María Marín in Murcia, who retains the 2 minutes, and Raúl Pérez in La Rioja, with many others. In Navarra, Begoña Alfaro is the only candidate, like Contigo Navarra, who improves results by going from 2 to 3 minutes.
The defeat is of such dimensions – especially painful in Madrid and the Valencian Community – that, at midnight, no state leader had appeared at the party headquarters to assess the results nor had any assessment been expressed on social networks.
After 00:05, the headliners of Madrid, Roberto Sotomayor and Alejandra Jacinto, appeared, accompanied by members of their lists but without a single face from the state leadership of Podemos. Sotomayor, visibly affected, stressed that he had been a tenth away from entering the city council, while the regional candidate, Alejandra Jacinto, lamented the triumph of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and called for "the unity of the progressive bloc." Jacinto described the results as "bad" for "the entire progressive bloc, but in a singular way" for this political force.
The first leader of the United Podemos space to make an analysis of the fateful night had been, an hour before, the coordinator of the IU and Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, who, in a Twitter thread, assessed the result as "worrying". and pointed out that "the advance of the reactionary wave is evident, and the general setback of the left and of the progressive governments is a very clear warning that we have to know how to listen to", since "the disaffection and frustration of the citizens are being increasingly channeled by the right-wing and, in times of ecosocial crisis, this is a particularly serious danger”. Garzón stresses that the general elections "are just around the corner, and there is not a minute to lose to regain confidence and win social majorities."
And this despite the fact that, where there was no pact between IU and Podemos, those of Garzón have fared better than those of Belarra. In Aragon they each get one seat, but in Asturias IU achieves three minutes while Podemos, which had faced its own candidate, Covadonga Tomé, and had four regional deputies, only achieved one minute in the Principality's General Meeting. In the provincial capitals and cities of more than 100,000 where IU and Podemos did not achieve a common candidacy, the advantage falls on the side of Garzón's. Thus, in Zamora, IU obtained 10 minutes and Podemos none; in Oviedo, IU obtained 3 minutes and Podemos none; in Zaragoza, IU achieved two minutes and Podemos none; in Gijón, IU obtained two mayors and Podemos none; and in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, where the pact was broken at the last minute, the IU obtained 9 councilors and the possibility of revalidating the municipal government, while Podemos did not obtain any. A readjustment of hegemony on that side of the political chessboard.
In the general picture, the resilience of the commons, Compromís and Más Madrid –although yesterday none had reason to celebrate–, together with the readjustment of power between Podemos and IU, deals new cards for Sumar's game ahead of the general elections. Today it all starts. From scratch.
