Yolanda Díaz meets the ministers of United We Can to placate the internal division

Vice President Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, at an event last July in Madrid. Cézaro De Luca (Europa Press)

The government's response to the conflict in Ukraine and the shipment of weapons to the country has unleashed a crisis within United We Can.

After several days of crossed declarations, the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, met on Monday with the rest of the group's ministers and secretaries of state to try to reduce tensions.

A meeting that the sources consulted describe as positive and that followed a first contact on Sunday between the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, and Díaz, in which they agreed to soften the tone with the PSOE.

Already in the morning, the party founded by Pablo Iglesias, which has been the one that has shown its rejection of the shipment of weapons with the greatest belligerence, closed ranks with Díaz and reiterated its support for her to be a candidate in the next general elections.

"It is evident that there are differences," admitted the party's spokesperson, Isa Serra, minutes after the party's Executive, but pointed out: "We agree on the importance of stopping Putin's feet, on the importance of diplomatic channels .

Yolanda Díaz is our candidate and that is why we are betting.”

The change in position of President Pedro Sánchez, who until a week ago maintained that he would only deliver weapons to Ukraine through the European Union, caused deep discomfort in Podemos last Wednesday, which was quick to reject the measure when the debate was not had closed even within the parliamentary group and caused a division among the deputies.

Immediately the ministers of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, and Universities, Joan Subirats, aligned themselves with Díaz to support the president on a very sensitive issue for the left and that has served to stage the umpteenth clash between Galician politics and the ministers Belarra and Irene Huntsman.

Just a few weeks before the vice president kicks off the process to form her own political platform that can compete in the elections - plans that are maintained, according to her environment, although there is not yet a specific date for the start- , Garzón signed an article in the magazine

, which he himself directs, in which it was pointed out that it was "likely" that the vice president would find herself "suffering a moment of suffocation by the political forces that make up the space, and whose pressures reduce her margin of intervention."

The federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida, who holds a position different from that of his party —against the shipment of arms—, warned in it of the risk that in the face of a hypothetical electoral advance, Díaz could decide to withdraw and not act as head of the list.

“The most likely thing would be a marked setback for United We Can that would take the space to a point of no return, both at a political and organizational level,” he predicted.

“The left must face this crisis with responsibility, coherence and political heights, avoiding deepening internal tensions that, in any of the cases, can only contribute to the weakening of the political space of United We Can and, consequently, to the strengthening of the PSOE and of the anti-democratic exits in their different expressions”, he defended.

"The moment demands responsible and high-ranking political leaders," insists the text released by Garzón.

The minister, who in recent times has strengthened ties with the vice president despite the differences in the past, has maintained fluid communication with Díaz these days.

His position has contrasted with that defended by IU, which these days crossed out, in the mouth of his spokesperson, Sira Rego, the sending of weapons as "part of the problem".

A position shared by the general secretary of the PCE, Enrique Santiago, for whom the measure "is useless and can hinder an urgent diplomatic solution."

Podemos responded this Monday at a press conference that it does not share Garzón's analysis.

For training, the response to the conflict in Ukraine is an issue on which it cannot remain silent.

As a party, it is due to some bases, some sources reason, —Díaz, however, is not a member of the formation— and the leadership emphasizes that Podemos represents an important sector of the Spanish population that is characterized by a “very important pacifist sentiment ”.

In an intervention in Rac1, former Vice President Iglesias, who in recent days criticized the position defended by Díaz, insisted on diplomatic channels and warned that the solution "is not going to be pretty nor is it going to be a solution in which the good”, alluding to the contradictions that proposals for a way out of the conflict may represent.

From Barcelona, ​​the mayor Ada Colau, of the commons, one of the main supporters of the head of Labor, supported her position.

For her "what would give more wings to militarization and escalation is a weakened government that the extreme right would take advantage of" and she asked the Sánchez Executive not to be disunited.

The discrepancies between the different families of United We Can, therefore, persist, but all parties made an effort this Monday to reduce tension.

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