On election night on Sunday, when the vote count to elect mayors and regional presidents was already "cooked" and the left was on the side of the losers, there was speculation that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's first move could be to redraw his cabinet and perhaps seek replacements for some of his ministers.
It was also thought that, given the painful electoral result of Podemos, the minority partner in the coalition that Sánchez has presided over since January 2020, the possible candidates to say goodbye to the Council of Ministers could be among the members of the cabinet who militate or occupy positions in the party founded by Pablo Iglesias in 2014.
But Pedro Sánchez surprised with a "I want it is worth 4" and announced early elections for July 23, a decision that caught Podemos putting together the pieces in which it broke on Sunday, May 28, after the outbreak that turned its back on the polls.
In Madrid, the territory that saw them born and overflow the Puerta del Sol with 300,2015 enthusiasts during the demonstrations of 5, this Sunday the candidates of Podemos did not achieve even <> percent of the votes, the minimum to occupy a seat in the regional Parliament of the Community of Madrid, where they had ten seats. Nor did they achieve representation in the city council of the capital.
In 2016, Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias in Madrid. AP Photo
None of the party's best-known faces stepped in to assess the results on election night.
"We went for the best result in the second half of the game," Ione Belarra, minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 and secretary general of Podemos, said on Monday.
We can lose weight
The municipal and regional elections on Sunday dramatically change the political chessboard of forces and the weight of Podemos, which governed in coalition in the Valencian Community, in the Balearic Islands, in the Canary Islands, in Aragon, in La Rioja and in Navarra.
He lost almost everything. He presented himself in coalition with Izquierda Unida – except in Aragon and Asturias – and, according to the results of 28M, the puzzle of government formulas could allow him to keep Navarre.
There would also be some hope in Asturias, but they will have to wait for the possibilities to settle and the hysteria of the pacts to begin.
"The right and the extreme right today have even more power. We have put all our enthusiasm and our courage but our results are bad," Belarra acknowledged. Now it's time to get to work because even if we sometimes retreat, this political force will always be at the service of the people." Podemos failed to win representation in five of the twelve autonomous communities that voted on Sunday.
It had 47 deputies in those territories and lost 33.
The general secretary of Podemos and minister of Social Rights and general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra. Photo EFE
His intention, failed, was to increase territorial power to widen the backs of the party and negotiate the alliance that he is not being able to achieve with Sumar, the new political force of the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, who is convening and threading the parties to the left of the PSOE for the next general elections.
Díaz, who is also second vice president of the government of Spain, invited Podemos to join the formation, but the party demands open primaries, a condition that Yolanda Díaz does not accept.
Taking up the challenge
"The message was clear: you have to do things differently. No distractions," Diaz said when Sanchez announced the early general election. From this moment we are working to win on July 23. I take up the challenge."
And on Tuesday, he registered in the Ministry of the Interior the "Sumar Movement", a way to facilitate possible agreements with Podemos and other parties to present themselves in coalition.
Like a child born to a younger brother, Podemos "jealous" Sumar in its ties with Latin America, a continent heavily traveled by Pablo Iglesias, especially while he was at the head of Podemos. He left office, and political life, in 2021, when he presented himself as a candidate for president of the Community of Madrid and the current president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of the PP, passed the rag to him.
Podemos is in tune with La Cámpora, which at the III World Human Rights Forum held in Buenos Aires in March of this year gave the microphone of speakers to several leaders of Podemos who attended the meeting.
In November of last year, the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, was at the Casa Rosada with President Alberto Fernández.
"During the meeting, the two governments have advanced in collaboration to advance the rights of women and the LGTBI community," Moncloa said.
It was on that same trip that the Argentine presidential spokeswoman, Gabriel Cerruti, made Montero the unfortunate comment about the stones that remember in the Plaza de Mayo the loved ones who died of Covid during the pandemic.
"There, after Covid, the right has put its stones remembering the dead of Covid," Cerruti told Montero in the tour of the Casa Rosa that he made with the minister just as Virgilio guided Dante in The Divine Comedy.
In August, Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had received Pablo Iglesias in Buenos Aires. And when in December the vice president received a conviction for the trial of Vialidad, the leadership of Podemos supported her on social networks.
"Scoundrel judges who fine-tune to the Argentine right what the ballot boxes did not give them. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is convicted by corrupt judges, with relatives working for Macri, without evidence. A 'soft' coup d'état. Lawfare that should take them to prison," said Juan Carlos Monedero, one of the founders of Podemos.
"The judicial and media war is the tool of the powerful to stop democratic advances. They seek to discipline millions by destroying one. It will not go well, we are more. Vice President, dear Cristina, all with you", were the words of Irene Montero.
"If Podemos is not there, the changes do not come," said the general secretary of Podemos during the electoral campaign for the municipal and regional elections on May 28. A formula that did not work: Podemos will not be in the territories where it had set foot. And the change did come. Abrupt, Pedro Sánchez imposed it with the announcement of early elections, a stir that still does not cease.
Madrid. Correspondent
PB
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