Adding seals the coalition with fifteen parties, including Podemos and without Montero

In a day full of confusing messages, with the latest dog-faced negotiations and after days of uncertainty, Sumar and Podemos sealed the coalition late in the afternoon to attend the general elections of 23-J together. It is an unprecedented unity agreement in Spanish democracy due to the magnitude of political forces that it encompasses and that seeks to stop the rise of the right to La Moncloa in very complex elections for the left, but that has been punctuated by the internal debate. The confluence that will lead Vice President Yolanda Díaz includes sixteen formations, including Izquierda Unida, Compromís and Más Madrid, but also the party of Ione Belarra, which according to the signed agreement, will go number five for Madrid in a list where the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, or the parliamentary spokesman of Unidas Podemos does not appear. Pablo Echenique. The party insists that it does not accept the "veto" to its number two and that it still has room to negotiate its inclusion until June 19, the deadline for registration, but Sumar considers the talks closed to avoid the wear and tear that would mean prolonging them for 10 more days.

"This is the broadest and most plural agreement reached in the entire democratic stage in Spain between progressive and green forces," reads the coalition's statement. The agreement signed and accepted by the leadership of Podemos contemplates heading the ballots for Navarra (MEP Idoia Villanueva) Gipuzkoa (Pilar Garrido), Granada (Martina Velarde), Murcia (Javier Sánchez Serna), Las Palmas (Noemi Santana), Araba (Roberto Uriarte) and gives the formation number five for Madrid (Ione Belarra) and four for Barcelona (Lilith Verstrynge). In the case of the capital, Díaz will most likely be head of the list and reserves his number two, while three and four are for Más Madrid and Más País (Íñigo Errejón will go fourth).

The coalition is finally formed by more than fifteen formations: Movimiento Sumar, Podemos, Izquierda Unida, Catalunya en Comú, Más Madrid, Más País, Compromís, Chunta Aragonesista, Més per Mallorca, Més per Menorca, Verdes Equo, Alianza Verde, Batzarre, Proyecto Drago, Izquierda Asturiana and Iniciativa del Pueblo Andaluz.

The day was dramatic at times. The leadership of Podemos announced shortly before two o'clock in the afternoon of this Friday that it would concur with Sumar to the general elections of July 23, but, at the same time, it flatly rejected all the terms of the agreement proposed by the negotiating team of the vice president, thus opening a public battle over the conditions of that confluence.

The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, explained in an appearance without journalists at the party's headquarters that the decision to attend the elections in coalition with Sumar was "taken", and that the signature of her party in the document that was registered this Friday presenting that coalition in the Electoral Board was "guaranteed". But, at the same time, he said that the leadership of Podemos did not accept the "veto" to the presence of Irene Montero in the electoral lists nor the positions offered in those lists by Díaz's negotiating team; some positions that Podemos sees as insufficient because, according to its analysis, they could leave the party out of the Congress of Deputies next term.

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Belarra: "We will attend the general elections with Sumar"

Ione Belarra intervenes this Friday in an appearance without questions.

Sumar sources immediately responded that the presence of Podemos in the candidacies is "widely guaranteed" and that they "did not accept" that the formation of Belarra takes them "to the stage of Andalusia." They allude to the very hard negotiation between the leftist formations that took place before the Andalusian elections of 2022 and that resulted in a pulse of such caliber that the pact finally arrived outside the legal deadline and the coalition could not formally include Podemos. "The coalition will register this afternoon," warned these sources of Sumar, as has finally been done.

"We will attend the general elections with Sumar, that decision has been made," Belarra said in an appearance without journalists at the party headquarters, to then make an amendment to the entire offer presented by Díaz, opening fire even against the negotiating team of the vice president. "He has told us that the presence of Irene Montero is an insurmountable obstacle to reaching an agreement. It deeply saddens me that Yolanda, through her team, proposes that the electoral coalition agreement be built on the exclusion of a comrade who has taken feminist transformations further than anyone before," Belarra defended in a very harsh tone, before interpreting that Sumar's request means "sacrificing" the "main political asset" of Podemos.

The Minister of Equality, according to the leader of the party, intervened in the Executive of Podemos to "make herself available" to the formation and "do what is necessary, however unfair it may be, to ensure unity", something that was not accepted by the leadership. "We do not accept any veto as part of the negotiation," Belarra insisted. The statement of the general secretary came after the express consultation to the party membership granted, with 92.92% of the support, full powers to the Executive to decide on the agreement.

Party sources reiterate that the commitment to unity "is firm," but reiterate that there are days left to negotiate.

Alberto Garzón: "Sorry for the noise. No one deserves this."

Shortly after Belarra's intervention, the federal coordinator of the United Left, Alberto Garzón, announced his party's agreement with Sumar and, in a statement, apologized for all the public dispute. "I want to apologize to the public for the noise caused in this process. Nobody deserves this, and from IU we are convinced that things can be done differently and much better, "he said. The Minister of Consumer Affairs assures that IU has guaranteed the presence of deputies in the future parliamentary group, and that they "will work autonomously and coordinated" with the rest of the deputies. IU will head the lists of Sumar in most Andalusian provinces, but renounces to have a starting position in Madrid in the face of the general elections of 23-J. According to the agreement, the formation will be number nine in the constituency that grants more deputies to Congress (37), but instead, it takes the first positions in the Andalusian provinces. He will have the head of the list in Córdoba, Málaga, Huelva and Jaén, and in Seville and Cádiz they will go as seconds. The number two of the organization, Sira Rego, has decided to take a step back and give up going on the lists for Madrid. "Our formation has the greatest organizational extension and institutional presence of all those that make up the space, and this will be essential in the future of the left," Garzón says in his statement.

"The plurality of Sumar is the plurality of the country and we want to make it a sign of identity of this electoral coalition, which constitutes the main alternative for progressive citizens to recover hope," Sumar defends in a note in which he celebrates the pact reached less than a month before the campaign begins.

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