Less than 48 hours before the deadline for the registration of coalitions, the agreement in Sumar advances, but not at the same pace with all parties. The fitting of the pieces of the puzzle, with up to fifteen formations, is very complex, and the fundamental obstacle is in the elaboration of the lists and the distribution of each one in the starting posts. Sources of different formations have been optimistic throughout Wednesday and it is expected that already this Thursday there will be announcements. The militancy of Más Madrid, gathered in assembly yesterday afternoon, supported with more than 96% of support the integration in the coalition led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz to present itself to the general elections of July 23. At the last minute, the Chunta Aragonesista also unanimously approved to attend jointly with the Sumar platform and this Thursday Iniciativa del Pueblo Andaluz and AraMÉS have announced the same. Compromís, meanwhile, maintains silence. Both Mónica García and Joan Baldoví have publicly stated that there will be an agreement, but the great unknown remains Podemos. Pressure grew Wednesday from the territories, with several leaders calling for the pact.
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Josep Vendrell, the discreet weaver of pacts of Yolanda Díaz
Sources of the formation of Ione Belarra insisted in the afternoon that everything is still blocked in Madrid, Valencian Community and Catalonia, the three autonomies in which they denounced vetoes of other forces (Más Madrid, Compromís and Catalunya en Comú) to their presence and also, late in the day, to the specific name of Irene Montero. Sumar, who has rejected this week that he wants to exclude the formation, does not go into details about the course of the dialogues. The negotiations between Díaz's team – led by his cabinet director in the second vice presidency, Josep Vendrell – and the rest of the parties continued throughout the day, with the presence of several formations in the same office to try to fit the lists. The meetings continued well into the night. For the definition of the final puzzle, the organizations try to argue with the results that best suit them, whether they are the general ones of 2019, the regional ones or the municipal ones of 28-M. Podemos, for example, is not interested in taking as a reference these last elections, disastrous for the party, which became extra-parliamentary in the Community of Madrid, Valencia and the Canary Islands. Elections that do demand to take into account other territorial forces.
Más Madrid will support Sumar in the next elections of 23J with 96.11% of votes in favor in the consultation. We are going to put all our strength so that @Yolanda_Diaz_ is the first president of the government of Spain. pic.twitter.com/tLqa2YvYpt
— Monica Garcia (@Monica_Garcia_G) June 7, 2023
Throughout Wednesday, different authorized voices in the autonomies have called for the agreement, with especially notorious interventions, such as that of Irene de Miguel, leader of Podemos in Extremadura, who announced that the Autonomous Citizen Council, territorial leadership body, had supported being part of the electoral coalition with Sumar in the generals. "Those who do not want unity have to step aside and leave those who believe that unity is the way," he warned on Canal Extremadura Radio. "The mandate of the Executive of Podemos is to reach an agreement and I think it must be done," she added when asked about the pact.
The new campaign spokesman of Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, with Yolanda Díaz, this Wednesday during his visit to Doñana.Paco Puentes
In his opinion, the coordinator of the party in Navarra, Begoña Alfaro, and that of Galicia, Borja San Ramón, have also been added. Alfaro, a profile close to Díaz, emphasized that it would be "an impressive irresponsibility if an agreement were not to occur," while San Ramón insisted that "agreeing is not resigning," but "betting decisively on what the projects have in common." Also the national co-spokesperson of Podemos and candidate for the presidency of the Community of Madrid on 28-M, Alejandra Jacinto, reflects in an article published early on the bad electoral results. "If we know how to read what happened, we have before us the clues to write the future," he says in the text.
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All the battles of Sumar
In the Valencian Community, several militants and leaders of the municipal level have signed a manifesto in which they demand "transparency and participation" in the configuration of the Podem team that, they indicate, "can and should be integrated into a broad confluence structured from Sumar". The document also expresses discomfort over the results of May, when the organization went from being part of the Government to being outside the Cortes and also failed to enter the City Council of Valencia. "The people who have managed the municipal agreements and the campaign for the regional elections cannot be at the forefront of this new appointment with the polls, neither in the planning nor in the lists," they say about elections whose results they call "catastrophic," reports María Fabra.
Endorsement of Más Madrid
The bases of Más Madrid have overwhelmingly endorsed this Wednesday, with 96.11% of the votes, that the party that leads the opposition in the Community of Madrid supports Sumar in the elections. After the endorsement, the next few hours are key to closing an agreement that Monica Garcia herself took for granted on Tuesday night on Cadena SER. Predictably, if a pact is reached, for which there is a limit until Friday before midnight, Íñigo Errejón, leader of More Country, will be the first representative of the formation in the lists of Sumar.
"Do you agree that Más Madrid supports Sumar and that the Coordinating Team negotiates the best conditions for the next general elections?" That is the question to which the bases of the party have answered affirmatively, and overwhelmingly, summoned in the last week to debate in their respective assemblies, and to vote electronically. With the victory already assured, both Maestre and García have celebrated the positioning of Más Madrid, although they also agreed that any pact with Sumar must be made respecting the DNA and autonomy of Más Madrid.
Mónica García and Rita Maestre from Más Madrid attend the party's plenary at Espacio Rastro in Madrid. Andrea Comas
"We are not going to return to bipartisanship, because that is to return to a country that no longer exists, and in which the right wins," said the spokeswoman for Más Madrid in the Madrid City Council, Rita Maestre, during her speech before the plenary of her organization. "To the bipartisan question or Yolanda Díaz, we answer Yolanda Díaz, the first president of this country," he concluded.
A line that García maintained: "There has been an almost unanimous sense in the assemblies to support Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, and to preserve our DNA, so we are going to put all our generosity, all our talent, to have the first president of Spain, "said the spokesperson of the Regional Assembly and leader of the opposition to the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP).
However, completing the negotiation will not be as easy as starting it. In the list of Madrid want to have room representatives of More Madrid, Podemos and United Left. Tradition dictates that Díaz heads the list and will probably want to include some independent profile or his own party (Movimiento Sumar). And since the number of seats with the possibility of later becoming seats is very limited, the negotiations face a very delicate moment. Más Madrid wants to assert its weight as the reference party of the regional left. Podemos, its presence in the coalition government, and its municipal structure in the Community, more settled than that of the party of Errejón.
In the final stretch of the talks, Díaz traveled in the morning to Doñana to try to focus on a model of defense of the environment against the policies of the Junta de Andalucía, governed by the PP, which "turn Spain into a desert," as he denounced. From there, the newly appointed campaign spokesman, MEP Ernest Urtasun, sent a message of calm: "We are progressing well. We won't make it to the last minute and we will be able to give good news shortly."
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