They have coincided in dozens of acts, they are companions of the Council of Ministers and they lead two formations that have reached more territorial agreements than ever for the regional and municipal elections of May 28 and that also share a space, that of Unidas Podemos, which is government force. Even so, the reconfiguration of the state left around the leadership of Yolanda Díaz and her Sumar platform means that the presence of Ione Belarra and Alberto Garzón in the same public space encloses a political reading full of nuances.
The leaders of Podemos and Izquierda Unida shared the stage this Tuesday during the pre-campaign act for their candidacies in Madrid on the festivities of May 2. It was in the central square of San Ildefonso, in the heart of the Malasaña neighborhood, where the candidates of Podemos, Izquierda Unida and Alianza Verde addressed around a hundred attendees distributed among the thirty seats of the organization and as many from the terraces of the neighboring bars, intermingled with the clientele of the neighborhood at the height of the aperitif hour and with all the predisposition to demand a height of vision from the left-wing leaders.
“Let’s see if it’s true and you reach unity for the generals!” Shouted a woman from the part of the audience standing in front of the stage, between the official seats and the nightstands, during Alejandra Jacinto’s intervention, as soon as it started the act. The candidate for the Community of Madrid had claimed her list as the “unity candidacy.”
During the turns to speak, there was only one intervention that explicitly mentioned the unity of the left in the midst of a political storm between Podemos and Yolanda Díaz. It was that of Alberto Garzón, the leader of Izquierda Unida, who wanted to convey a message of express recognition to the formation of Ione Belarra and the commitment to work together in the future.
“Podemos is a fundamental party in history, in the present and also in the political future of this country,” said Garzón as he gave way to the general secretary of the purples, whom he defined as a “friend” with whom he will continue “working together in the future for a long time.” At that moment, those gathered chanted in unison: “Unity, unity!” Ione Belarra repeated the proclamation of “unity” into the microphone and did not mention the issue of the left his intervention again.
In Podemos they appreciate Garzón’s “gesture” and assure that with Izquierda Unida, far from having problems, there is political cooperation in the face of the May 28 campaign “like never before.” But they openly admit that the “distortion”, for 28M and also for later, has to do with the role of Yolanda Díaz. Those of Belarra insist on demanding that the second vice president and also leader of United We Can in the Government be involved in the acts of the formations that precisely make up that space. And they also ask Galician politics to refrain from supporting competing candidacies in that space, such as the case of Compromís in Valencia, no matter how much they have shown their adherence to Sumar.
For the moment, Yolanda Díaz has not yet made official what her level of involvement will be in a campaign that she has always shunned, alleging that “Sumar does not arrive”, but in the face of which she has not hidden her sympathies for candidacies such as that of Joan Baldoví, from Compromís, in the Valencian Community, or even in a more or less veiled way by that of Mónica García, from Más Madrid, one of her closest political supporters in Sumar along with Ada Colau.
Garzón attacks Ayuso and Belarra accuses the PSOE of being “timorous”
There were also nuances in the content of the more political messages from Belarra and Garzón during the event. The leader of the United Left and Minister of Consumption focused his criticism on the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whom he came to accuse of implementing a “criminal policy” of destruction of the public. “They represent the reactionary heritage and their true motto is ‘return the chains’ and absolutism,” she said, referring to the popular uprising on May 2.
Garzón did not mention his government partner, the PSOE, for which the Minister of Social Rights and Secretary General of Podemos, Ione Belarra, did direct a good part of her criticism. “You don’t stop the wild right being timorous,” said Belarra, referring to the socialists. And she asked to continue advancing in rights, committing to “leave the skin” to limit the price of the shopping cart in the same way that it is already done with that of rents or to open the debate of a new working day. “We have to work fewer hours,” she claimed.
