Podemos and Yolanda Díaz go to the frontal clash for Sumar

The space to the left of the PSOE is revolting again.

After an apparent calm and coordination for weeks due to the crisis in the Government with the

and unity around the position of the Ministry of Equality, in the hands of Podemos, Ione Belarra's party has once again urged Yolanda Díaz to seal a pact between them and Sumar, the platform she promotes.

Hours after the vice president's team hinted that they plan to transfer their decision at an event in Madrid "soon" to which they will invite the political leaders of the different organizations called to form part of their coalition, Podemos has put a stop to the expectation of a joint photograph.

The party's request, which once again reveals the fragile coexistence within the group and the complications of widening the space, differs diametrically from the opinion expressed by the leader of Izquierda Unida, Alberto Garzón,

who pointed out first thing in the morning that the "noise on the left" in recent weeks "does not help the future" of a project like the one championed by Díaz and called for "healing the wounds" of these years.

The environment of the head of Labor refused this Monday to publicly answer Podemos, although before knowing her position, she asked everyone "to rise to the occasion."

"We hope that a coalition agreement between Podemos and Sumar is concluded to be able to attend the presentation of the candidacy of Yolanda Díaz as the candidate of all, also of Podemos," the co-spokesperson for the formation Javier Sánchez Serna responded on several occasions. , without leaving the script at the insistence of journalists.

Party sources specify that for them the priority is the negotiations, not so much the specific act, but the image of a presentation without them would deepen the gap in space.

The also secretary of the Board of Congress reiterated that the agreement must include that the lists be drawn up "with primaries", which according to Podemos must be open to the public —without prior agreement in the offices—, an aspect on which all the parties, including Díaz, agree in principle.

However,

In his day, former Vice President Pablo Iglesias pointed to the head of Labor as his successor;

a method about which a year ago he showed some regret and that people linked to the party, such as Juan Carlos Monedero, have openly criticized.

"That proposal from Podemos is already on the table of Sumar's negotiators and we are waiting for him to answer us to find out if Yolanda Díaz is going to be the candidate of all of us, also of Podemos," Sánchez Serna repeated.

"If we can close an agreement before that announcement is made, it will be the best of news," said Belarra, less explicitly in Valencia.

As EL PAÍS has learned, Podemos raised weeks ago, in the first contacts with Sumar,

The party has been pointing out for months that Díaz "is late" in the negotiations and has urged him to clarify his decision.

This Monday, however, he has gone further by threatening to stand up to him at his debut if he does not agree with them beforehand, regardless of what happens with the other parties.

"No one can be surprised when Yolanda is presented as a candidate with Sumar for the next elections and there is no one from Podemos," warns a leading member of the party, who shows "astonishment" at her attitude, when trying to announce her decision , without prior agreement, at the gates of a campaign in which Podemos is risking its presence in up to six regional executives and from which she has completely distanced herself, despite being the highest representative of United We Can in the coalition government .

Different authorized voices of the Belarra organization fear that delaying the talks is only a strategy to weaken the position of Podemos at the negotiating table of the lists.

“What she is doing leads us to think that Yolanda is going to subcontract the Sumar project with Compromís in Valencia, with Más Madrid in Madrid, with the commons in Catalonia, with Mes in the Balearic Islands, with Alberto Rodríguez in the Canary Islands and even with La Chunta in Aragón”, says a source, who also warns: “We can not accept that he cheats us with 15 small parties so that we do not have the representation that corresponds to us”.

The Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra (right), and the Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, Lilith Verstringe, this Monday in Valencia. Mònica Torres

From Brussels, where she was this Monday, the vice president asked all the organizations, including the parties, to be "at the height of the circumstances", but she refused to assess the order of Podemos.

“What everyone wants is for us to continue guaranteeing a coalition government for the next decade, which is going to be progressive.

The tool to guarantee that this government remains and we continue to win rights is called Sumar, ”she said before learning of Sánchez Serna's statements.

First thing in the morning, the official account of the platform announced on Twitter: “The spring of 2023 will be decisive for the country we want.

Soon we will see each other in Madrid and a new stage will begin”.

In her team they specify that the intention is for this event to be held in the next three weeks,

Amid the noise, sources from the group interpret Podemos' ultimatum as a way to negotiate "from a position of strength" and "prepare" in case the talks "go wrong."

The party has spent months promoting Irene Montero, Minister of Equality and one of her greatest electoral assets, and with the crisis of the

she made a virtue of necessity,

by organizing a multitude of events to raise their profile.

In space, there are those who value that the demand of Podemos supposes "changing the rules of the game" in the middle of the party, because there are formations beyond UP with their own electoral interests this 28-M —such as Más Madrid or Compromís— that are not willing to close an agreement before June, something that was already transferred to the Belarra party weeks ago and they themselves made public.

The pact, these sources emphasize, must be "global", with all the parties, and they remember that in any case, Díaz's next announcement is that of a personal decision, not the official presentation of a complete candidacy.

Minister Alberto Garzón spoke in a very different tone from Podemos.

IU has accompanied the vice president's project without nuances from the start and after revealing the imminence of the act to publicize her decision on networks, praised her figure again and sent an indirect message to the Belarra organization: “Adding is neither must be a sum of matches.

It is a popular instrument where the parties must contribute with humility and with our own baggage”.

“The matches must begin by healing the wounds that have been suffered in these years.

In Sumar we all fit and we are all necessary.

Now it's up to the people to take center stage”, warned Garzón, for whom all the energies “should be devoted to the Sumar project continuing to grow, mature and take shape”, and not to get lost in internal battles.

The strategic differences and tensions, however, are evident.

And the fight for representation on the lists, already on the table, will define the future of the coalition.

A space condemned to understand each other if they want to revalidate the left-wing government, something that each of the actors is clear about.

But everything can blow up.

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