Difficulties on the left

On the left, the fragmentation is serious because the United We Can coalition of former Izquierda Unida and Podemos is weak and shares space with Más País de Errejón, Compromís, the Catalan Communes and Adelante Andalucía. Teresa Rodriguez, who took part alone in the last autonomous elections in Andalusia (which gave the PP an absolute majority) and other small groups of similar sentiment. Thus, Yolanda Díaz’s initiative attempted to create “Sumar”, an entity that would group the distribution and allow the left to maintain itself as a compact actor that could continue to rule in coalition with the PSOE.

Although Yolanda Díaz did not belong to the government of Pedro Sánchez, the Podemos – by Pablo Iglesias – purple organization (she was at Esquerra Unida, which she left in 2019 as a PCE militant), her career as UP and Minister of Labor gave her considerable popularity rivaling that of Pedro Sánchez. earned. It’s the opposite of what happened to Pablo Iglesias, whose time in government caused a deep wear and tear.

The idea of ​​grouping the left in “Sumar” for the 2023 general election presents no contradiction, as the Andalusian experience shows that the breakup of the proposal causes potential voter distrust who stay at home or choose other options. . The problem arises when it comes to articulating the nomination of candidates, the project originally proposed by Díaz as the “dispersal” of the parties in that formation that would be the dominant party and make the programmatic decisions. , etc.

Iglesias emerged in a storm to reject this orientation. The founder of Podemos, a steamy parliamentary community that was not part of the old party system that made up the “caste”, tried unsuccessfully to stabilize his organization, devastated by a constant crisis of rivalries and purges. Now, Iglesias calls those who reject political parties as essential elements of political representation as reactionary (as the Constitution itself, by the way, stipulates) and, of course, rejects the “disintegration” that would empower Díaz and his team. It transforms the spirit of Podemos into an ethereal and symbolic being.

Clearly, Podemos publicly considers “Sumar” to be a party (something Yolanda Díaz denies, as has been said before) and is willing to negotiate a coalition of all entities involved in this space, including “Sumar”, but will not. It should not be diluted, but it will reveal its strength.

Yolanda’s suggestion is probably the best, but clearly utopian: Those who live under the acronyms and manage to make a place for themselves in the sun will not give up on them in exchange for giving way to an abstract being they are in. will not be controllable. Therefore, perhaps it would be appropriate for Díaz to abandon his initial bid and run as a simple supporter of a coalition.

If this is not done, it will be impossible to reconcile such heterogeneous elements, full of personalities, that came together in the project, some of which would prevent the abandonment of respectable abbreviations. In any case, “Sumar” is a magnanimous essay and one should bear in mind that in this case, due to the peculiarity of our party system, it can be decisive when it comes to tilting the balance to one side or the other. In a democracy, it should never be a serious setback for the opponent to win, but it makes sense that every actor should do everything possible to prevent it and not let himself fall into stupid selfishness.