The irruption of Sumar widens the gap in the Valencian left at the gates of elections

The tension in the parties to the left of the PSPV is increasing as the 28M election date approaches.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
03 April 2023 Monday 20:27
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The irruption of Sumar widens the gap in the Valencian left at the gates of elections

The tension in the parties to the left of the PSPV is increasing as the 28M election date approaches. After the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, called the elections, the Compromís candidate, Joan Baldoví, asked to focus on the regional and municipal elections to reissue progressive pacts in the Valencian Community and in the majority of city councils, ignoring "what happens 300 kilometers”.

When asked about Yolanda Díaz and the presentation of her Sumar project, Baldoví pointed out that everything will be discussed as of May 29. It seemed quite clear that the intention of the Compromís candidate was to focus the debates on autochthonous issues and not contaminate it with state debates.

However, at almost the same time, the second vice president of the Council and Podem candidate for the Presidency, Héctor Illueca, harshly charged against Baldoví himself for, in his opinion, blocking the Podemos agreement with Sumar. Illueca stressed that the Valencian formation was opposed to a national and regional agreement with the purples for fear that this would take away "media support and complicity with the Socialist Party."

An argument that went further when the person in charge of Podem accused his partners in the Consell of being "hegemonized by the most conservative forces" after the departure of Mónica Oltra. It is not the first time that the name of the vice president has been used to try to sell an alleged right-wing of Compromís. Illueca gave another example: "Compromís and Baldoví were the first to come out to defend Juan Roig" when Podemos accused the president of Mercadona of being a "ruthless capitalist."

Some forceful statements that carried another message in an electoral key: "There is only one force in the Valencian Community with the capacity to mobilize the disenchanted sectors and the youth and it is called Podemos". And it is that, after the harmony evidenced on Sunday between Yolanda Díaz and Compromís, the situation is delicate for Podem, which sees how part of its space could be divided. Illueca tried yesterday to cover the escape with a hard attack on his rival.

Compromís sources consulted by this newspaper expressed their surprise at the statements "with great aggressiveness and baseless accusations" by the second vice president. "Everything indicates that an order has been given from an office in Madrid to attack Compromís," they added.

Thus, they reiterated that their priority was the 28M, so they were not going to enter into "sterile debates" since "their only rival is the right and the extreme right."

To all this, yesterday a question was repeated without a clear answer. Would Vice President Díaz campaign in the Community, and for whom? Baldoví insisted that he would feel "comfortable" with Díaz's presence at some Compromís electoral act for the regional and municipal elections in Valencia, with the mayoral candidate Joan Ribó or with the vice president of the Consell, Aitana Mas, in Alicante.

A circumstance that they would not understand in Esquerra Unida, also present in the act of Sumar on Sunday. In statements to SER, its coordinator, Rosa Pérez Garijo, pointed out that it would not be understood that Díaz campaigned for a party other than Unides Podem.

Along these lines, and despite the coincidence of the EU and Compromís in Madrid together with Sumar has once again raised the idea that Rosa Pérez's party could end up reaching an agreement with Compromís, the truth is that the urgency of the EU it goes through closing its autonomous pact with Podem. Although it is true that what the purples offer them, for the moment, does not convince them, fewer are the holes that Compromís has in their lists to give them.

For this reason, if reissuing Unides Podem already seems complicated, the possibility of an agreement to integrate the US into the Compromís lists seems like a utopia. Another thing would be that a global pact will not be reached and, for example, in Valencia, alternatives will be sought.