Pablo Echenique, Ione Belarra and Lilith Verstrynge, this Friday at the inauguration of the Autumn University in Madrid.Luis Millan (EFE)
Podemos has turned this Friday the start of its Autumn University, the party's forum for reflection, into a vindication of the party and its structure as a benchmark for the Spanish left.
Faced with the speech that Vice President Yolanda Díaz has championed for months, moving away from political formations, the
number three
of Podemos, Lilith Verstrynge, has valued the work of the organization to achieve social progress.
"We want to use these months to dedicate it to ideologically and politically leading the space of the left in our country," said the also Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda in a message in which she has veiled away from Díaz.
"At Podemos we know very well that ideas don't come if we don't have an organization", she added.
After a process of internal primaries where the only surprise has been the victory of the candidacy critical of the leadership of Podemos in Asturias, endorsed by the former regional coordinator, Daniel Ripa, the party led by Ione Belarra has presented its candidates this afternoon in the inaugural act of the University.
In the midst of the tensions for the control of the project that Díaz is preparing and in full conflict with the United Left for the preparation of the lists for the May elections, the formation returns to its origins, the Faculty of Political Sciences of the Complutense, to try to build muscle, position their candidates and claim the Podemos brand in a conference in which neither the vice president, nor IU leaders or the commons will intervene, but Belarra has briefly been seen,
“A country project is not only thinking about the future we want, but also and above all, [thinking] how we want the day-to-day life of Spaniards to be, how they go to work, how long it takes, where they go for a walk or where they leave the rubbish”, Verstrynge pointed out.
Although she has not referred to it at any time, the formula used, "country project", is the one used by the vice president to describe the process that she has launched with an eye on the general ones.
In her speech, the party's Secretary of Organization has also claimed the "importance" of municipal and regional politics, elections in which the vice president will not concur with her platform.
“The great debates that we use to think about a better country are useless without concrete policies that ground our values in government action”, Verstrynge concluded before giving way to the parliamentary spokesman, Pablo Echenique, who has described the party as “the force that transforms society”, the organization's motto, and recalled the work carried out within the coalition.
Apart from the Asturian case, where the candidacy of Covadonga Tomé has prevailed over that of Alba González, former advisor to Irene Montero in the Ministry of Equality and current secretary of the Organization of Podemos in the Principality (1,565 votes against 1,150), the primaries have served, for the most part, to ratify the candidates of the territorial directorates.
This is the case of Alejandra Jacinto (Madrid), Héctor Illueca (Valencian Community), Noemí Santana (Canary Islands), Antonia Jover (Balearic Islands), Maru Díaz (Aragón), Begoña Alfaro (Navarra) or Irene de Miguel (Extremadura).
In La Rioja, where the regional coordinator, Arantxa Carrero, did not get enough guarantees to run, 224 registered have given their approval in favor of the candidate Raúl Pérez.
At the municipal level,
With the left demobilized and after successive internal divisions, the primaries show a general decline in participation compared to previous processes.
In Madrid, where last year 13,400 registered voters voted to support the then Secretary General, Pablo Iglesias, the figure is now close to 8,000.
Also in the Canary Islands there have been 1,800 votes, less than half that four years ago (more than 4,400) and in the Valencian Community about 3,600 compared to more than 5,000 then.
Alliances with other forces
Once the primaries are over, the candidates will set about seeking alliances with other political forces.
Although the scenario differs from one community to another, the talks to go in coalition in the May elections take place in a context of loss of trust between Podemos and Izquierda Unida that has worsened after the Andalusian elections last June.
Although there are already agreements to go together in Navarra or La Rioja, sources from both parties acknowledge that the negotiations are paralyzed in a good part of the territories.
The situation is particularly complex in those places with more than two actors, such as Madrid, the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands.
And at the municipal level, also Andalusia.
In the first case, in Podemos an alliance with Más Madrid is already ruled out, a formation that has also refused to dilute its brand and that was born in 2019 as a split from the Iglesias formation promoted by Íñigo Errejón.
IU's position on this point is, however, different: he does not close any doors and acknowledges that he is holding talks with "all progressive forces."
Nor does he rule out a Valencian coalition that includes Compromís or in the Canary Islands, with the emerging space led by Alberto Rodríguez, Proyecto Drago.
On the islands, Belarra's party has suffered several leaks in the last year, first due to the departure of the former deputy and then due to the departure of parliamentarian Meri Pita and a group related to her.
In any case, Garzón's party has until the end of January to reach agreements with Podemos in regional and municipal governments.
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