Maíllo, on the future of IU: "We parties have to channel social aspirations, not the other way around"

Antonio Maíllo has appealed this Monday to have people “who transcend the organization” for “the defense of democratic values” and to widen the progressive space to stop the advance of the extreme right and the possibility of it governing, as has occurred this weekend in France thanks to the formation of a Popular Front in the second round of the legislative elections.

According to the recently elected federal coordinator of the United Left (IU), “the key lies in this social mobilization”, but it should be “the political organizations that have to channel social aspirations and not the other way around”. “IU will be in this position”, he said in statements to journalists in the Congress of Deputies.

However, Maíllo has ruled out the possibility that this model in Spain is a copy of that of France. Specifically, when asked if the PSOE should also be included in this new progressive space defended by IU, the federal coordinator of IU has recalled that the socialists here have “a bold electoral offer” of their own, so there is no need to include them in this formula. “The scenario [en España] is different from that of France. Let us not forget that this agreement [del Frente Popular] This has occurred when the progressive sectors have found themselves up to their necks in water.” He also recalled that the electoral systems of both countries are also “different,”

Last Saturday, Maíllo held a meeting for the first time with the new executive board of the party, where he was ratified as federal coordinator with 129 votes in favour, 2 votes against and 5 abstentions. At this meeting, the debate on the future of the party was addressed, affected by the crisis within what was once Yolanda Díaz’s party. Maíllo then urged the recomposition of an alternative left after the poor results in the electoral cycle of Sumar, the coalition in which IU is integrated, warning that now “there is no time for nonsense” or “for palace irrelevancies”, while he rejected projects based on “hyper-leadership”, a veiled reproach directed at Yolanda Díaz, as many interpreted, whom, however, he continues to defend and value for her role in Pedro Sánchez’s Government.

Maíllo has given as an example this Monday the result of the second round of elections in France in which a coalition of left-wing parties, the Popular Front, has managed to stop the extreme right, and will be able to form a government. In his opinion, these elections have been “very important” because “they show that the reactionary wave is not irreversible.” In this sense, he has appealed to extend the progressive model of government that exists in Spain to the other countries of the European Union: “In the electoral debate there has been an appeal referenced by the Government of Spain and what is involved is not to assume that reactionary governments advance in Europe, but that the model of Spain extends,” he argued. “The construction of a new common sense is at stake, a new model that challenges hatred,” he added, and this project for the future, in his opinion, “depends on popular mobilization.”

That said, he added that “policies must be created that expand rights, that improve people’s material living conditions because it is not just about containing the extreme right but attacking the causes that ignite it.” “Far from tackling cuts, what we have to do is expand rights,” he concluded. “There is a lesson that we already had [el 23J] And now we have to consider that unity has to be an objective or instrument to continue consolidating a progressive Europe. It is obvious that if we were fragmented, these objectives would not be achieved.” “If this social shift is not made, the monster will continue to be there,” he warned.

The federal coordinator of IU has said that the result in France represents “a day of joy compared to the Europe of Orbán, Meloni or Abascal” and “we don’t know about Feijóo and what he will be when he is older”, he has ironically said. In this sense, he has then charged against “the reactionary” and “impostor” discourse “that the leader of the PP develops, “especially in recent days with an attempt to appropriate the extreme right, although they know that people usually prefer the original to the copy”. He has accused Feijóo of “inability to develop a defined national project” while governing with the extreme right.