Yolanda Díaz exhibits Colau's support and approaches Catalanism with a social discourse

The difficulty of closing deals in Madrid seems to vanish when Yolanda Díaz arrives in Barcelona.

The second vice president of the Government has found great allies in the Catalan capital for her country project, Sumar, and she has approached Catalanism with a social and sensitive discourse with the community after the

.

Díaz introduced herself as a "friend of Catalonia" and promised to continue raising the interprofessional minimum wage alongside Ada Colau.

The mayoress is confirmed as one of Díaz's main allies in Spain.

"Nobody has helped Barcelona as much as she has," Colau said of the vice president.

Sumar's meeting comes in a context of discomfort with Podemos, which is still waiting for Díaz to confirm her candidacy to negotiate and close the format of a common project.

The second vice president of the Government has claimed a project of social policies and has promised to continue raising the minimum wage.

"We will do it again", she has promised herself in full bath of masses in a packed Auditorium.

Díaz has presented her project claiming her social successes in the Government, especially after the covid crisis: "They said that we were going to bankrupt the country, but we have saved 3.6 million jobs and 550,000 companies", she assured.

Díaz also criticized the PP's policies, assuring that the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, "has decided" the position of the popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on the Vox proposal against abortion.

She has assured it the day after asking Feijóo to react to the announcement of the vice president of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo (Vox), of measures so that women who want an abortion listen to the heartbeat of the fetus or have 4D ultrasounds.

Díaz's visit filled the Barcelona Auditorium, which brought together 2,000 people and, according to Sumar, left another thousand outside the venue.

The great expectation delayed the start by 50 minutes because Colau and Díaz came out to thank and greet the supporters who could not enter.

His entrance on stage triggered shouts of “presidenta, presidenta” directed at Díaz, while Colau let out a surprised “wow” as he turned onstage and saw the crowd in their seats.

"I have asked Colau to invite me back so that we can address those who have been left out," Díaz said.

It is his third visit to Catalonia in the last four months, on his tour to publicize Sumar throughout Spain, after the one he made to Sabadell in October, and to Tarragona on Friday.

In this act, he already rejected the project for the Hard Rock leisure macro-complex in the Camp de Tarragona, one of the PSC's conditions for the approval of the Budgets of the Generalitat.

"This production model is not ours", he repeated this Saturday.

Díaz highlighted his proximity to Colau, who aspires to be re-elected in Barcelona in the upcoming May elections, praising municipal policies: "Barcelona is a reference in public policies in the world," said the leader of Sumar, who applauded the urban project of the city and assumed the mayor's oral health plan as his own: "Unfortunately these social policies are few in the country, but you have started a program that we want to extend."

The Sumar leader also asked to regularize migrants: "They have rights and live with us," she defended, and also that they can vote in the elections.

"If not, our democracy remains small."

One of the novelties of Díaz's speech was his mention of the political situation in Catalonia after the crisis of the

.

“They say that in Catalonia you have closed a part of your history [in reference to the

]”, he started.

“I don't know, let time and people decide what they want to do with the history of our country.

You have in me a friend from Catalonia.

I want us to speak different languages, respect and recognition;

and from Sumar you are going to have what you deserve, ”he assured to the intense applause of those present.

Colau presented Díaz as an "extraordinary" woman and a "tireless" worker, and assured that no one has helped the city as much in the field of housing as the leader of Sumar.

"We finally need a law that regulates rents and forces vulture funds to not be able to evict any vulnerable family."

With a message full of references to her municipal policies — "Barcelona has built more public housing than Madrid and Catalonia combined" — the city's mayoress applauded Díaz's progressive policies.

“She has achieved what they said was impossible: put an end to the infamous reform of the PP and have more permanent contracts than ever;

and a historic increase in the minimum wage.”

The leader of Barcelona en Comú has called for unity around Díaz to achieve "a coalition government that prevents the victory of the extreme right"

Sumar's meeting comes in a context of discomfort from the rest of the formations on the left, who are still waiting for Díaz to confirm his candidacy and close the format of his project.

Podemos, through the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, asked to speed up the definitive configuration of the platform for the next general elections.

"We should negotiate and close it now," she requested.

Another of those involved, the federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida and Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, asked this Saturday to avoid a public conflict between progressive formations.

"This is not the time for the leadership of certain parties," he claimed in an appearance prior to the meeting of the Federal Coordinator of the party.

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