The project of the Vice President of the Government to create a "citizen movement" to the left of the PSOE has already started under the name of Sumar.
Although Yolanda Díaz shuns the electoral platform label and prefers that the debate focus on a country model “for the next decade”, she acknowledges that the general elections scheduled for 2023 may become the launching pad for her.
— Adding is the bet of Yolanda Díaz to refloat the political space to the left of the PSOE.
She has defined it as a "citizen movement" that seeks to build a new "country project" with civil society at the center and, although she flees from the "electoral" label, she herself has recognized that it may possibly materialize in a platform for general scheduled in 2023. Initially, Sumar was the name of the association created to launch the logistics of the first phase of the process, a tour of much of Spain in which Díaz will meet with different groups to design that country model “for the next decade”, which in electoral terms would be the program.
Finally, Sumar names the whole of the project in progress.
— On July 8, the second vice president presented Sumar at the Matadero cultural center (Madrid) before some 5,000 attendees.
Just a week later, he inaugurated in a Lavapiés cooperative the first of the meetings that he has baptized as "acts of listening", sectoral meetings to address different issues with experts in each area: environmentalism, culture, health, education, feminism, technology , democratic quality, LGTBI rights… It began with some thirty young people concerned about the climate crisis, who in three-minute turns gave an account of their proposals.
Díaz asked the attendees to send their contributions or become part of the group in charge of working on this matter for the project —there are already more than 25 constituted and their task is to concretize the ideas that come out of these meetings—.
Between now and the end of the year,
Galician politics will tour different autonomous communities to hold different meetings.
The formats will vary (open or not to the public, more or less playful...).
The idea is to finish this phase at the end of the year.
It will be later when she formally makes public the decision on whether or not to present herself as a candidate for the presidency.
— Yolanda Díaz is a left-wing politician, a member of the PCE, former coordinator of Esquerda Unida and current leader of UP in the Government.
Her speech on July 8 at Matadero, where she asked that democracy reach taxes and that the "hyperrich" contribute "like everyone else", showed this.
However, in line with the postulates of the first Podemos, the vice president aspires to build a transversal movement, capable of convincing people with very different ideas.
“Many people who have been able to rely on right-wing options or who consider themselves conservative want to protect the environment or are concerned about this problem.
People are tired of politics understood as a soccer game, ”point out sources from her team, who emphasize that Sumar puts goals before ideology,
with the “main aspiration” of “expanding democracy”, an expression that Díaz continually uses.
“For this, and even more so in this context of crisis and citizen disaffection towards political parties, a policy of values is more important than a policy based on -isms”, underlines the environment of him.
Díaz already stated last December, in an interview, that he was not satisfied with the “little corner” to the left of the PSOE.
— Among the people involved in Sumar there are old familiar faces from politics, such as the former general secretary of Podemos Catalunya and former general coordinator of Catalunya en Comú, Xavier Domènech.
Also the Catalan MEP Ernest Urtasun and the councilor of Compostela Aberta (one of the Galician tides) Marta Lois.
Along with these three, other profiles close to Díaz share various organizational tasks.
Some personalities from different fields have already expressed their support for the project, either through videos and social networks or with their presence at the opening ceremony.
Among them, the writer and journalist Manuel Rivas;
the actors Luis Tosar, Antonio de la Torre and María Vázquez;
the critic Bob Pop, the pianist James Rhodes or the British economist Guy Standing.
— It has been the main point of friction with Podemos and remains one of the unknowns.
IU, Catalunya en Comú or the PCE, all part of UP, have endorsed Díaz's plans.
Also the party founded by Pablo Iglesias, although in recent months he has noted his discomfort with the vice president.
In March 2021, when he announced his departure from the Government, Iglesias pointed to the vice president as his successor at the head of UP.
However, the vice president, who is not a member of Podemos, has decided to open the space to recover the support that the coalition has been losing in the last electoral calls.
Díaz always mentions the gap that exists between citizens and parties, which is why he has built this process to include actors from civil society and, to date, has left political forces in the background.
The idea, however, is to also attract other formations that once left the group due to clashes with Iglesias, as is the case of Más País (Íñigo Errejón).
It is assumed that the definition of the role of the parties (and their place in the lists) will begin to be cleared up in public from January.
The tense negotiation of a leftist coalition in Andalusia has served as a prelude to a battle that threatens to spoil Díaz's account.
A speech that seeks to serve as a shock to the apathy of the electorate.
The tense negotiation of a leftist coalition in Andalusia has served as a prelude to a battle that threatens to spoil Díaz's account.
A speech that seeks to serve as a shock to the apathy of the electorate.
The tense negotiation of a leftist coalition in Andalusia has served as a prelude to a battle that threatens to spoil Díaz's account.
A speech that seeks to serve as a shock to the apathy of the electorate.
50% off
Subscribe to continue reading
read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber