MADRID, 1 (EUROPA PRESS)
A step that will take sheltered by multiple potentially allied progressive formations and surrounded by its main leaders, but it will also foreseeably show the current situation of disagreement with Podemos, which has already said that it will not attend if a prior agreement on open primaries is not signed beforehand.
The appointment, which puts the finishing touch on the territorial tour of its platform to meet with civil society, the so-called ‘listening process’, will take place at the Antonio Magariños sports center in the capital, a historic basketball court associated with the ‘Estudiantes’ club and that has an approximate capacity of regarding 3,000 people.
After visiting the 17 autonomous communities since announcing the start of this consultation phase, in July of last year, setting up 35 working groups to gather work proposals, and sectoral meetings with professional and social groups, Díaz is in a position to give the expected ‘step forward’ that has already slipped in various events and champion the progressive space, hand in hand with a “country project for the next decade”.
During this period, he has highlighted that Sumar is an “unstoppable” citizen movement, which generates “illusion” and “hope” to combat disaffection towards politics, where “everyone fits” and that it will be the “key” and the “revulsive” to revalidate a progressive coalition.
Thus, and following more than two years since he took over from former Vice President Pablo Iglesias as the highest representative of United We Can in the Executive, Díaz is preparing to also take on the electoral challenge to relaunch and reconfigure the space, which has been gradually fragmenting since the irruption of United We Can.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS AND CULTURE PERSONALITIES
For the appointment there will also be representation of social entities, with representatives among others of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), ONCE, the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI), SOS Racismo and the Union of Self-Employed ( UATAE), as well as delegations from CCOO and UGT, although leaders of these organizations, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, respectively, will not be present.
From the organization they also point out that there will be personalities from the world of culture and the public sphere at the event, without specifying names. However, some have already reported that the presenter Jorge Javier Vázquez will attend.
As on other occasions, there will be various interventions apart from the closing of the act, starring Díaz, and the difference with the rest of the events will be the support that different political leaders will give him.
HE WILL HAVE THE SUPPORT OF POLITICAL LEADERS, INSIDE AND OUTSIDE UP
Within the confederal space, IU has already said that it will turn both at the level of militants and sympathizers as well as with leaders, with a large delegation headed by the federal coordinator and Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, together with the spokesperson Sira Rego and the deputy and also general secretary of the PCE, Enrique Santiago.
The Comunes, another of Díaz’s bastions in this process, will also send an outstanding delegation with the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Coalu, the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, and the spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, together with various parliamentarians. . The coordinator of Alianza Verde, Juantxo López de Uralde, will also support Díaz.
The support for Díaz will not end there, as it will also be supported by the leader of Más País, Íñigo Errejón, and the Andalusian deputy from the Esperanza Gómez formation. The leaders of Más Madrid in the Community and the City Council of the capital, Mónica García and Rita Maestre, also attended the appeal of the vice president.
Precisely during these days, the two formations, which emerged following breaking away from Podemos, have highlighted their harmony with Díaz and their willingness to accompany her without conditions.
The representation of Compromís will be the responsibility of the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, and there will also be the presence of other formations allied in the so-called ‘Turia Agreement’, such as Verdes Equo with their co-spokespersons Marcellesi and Silvia Mellado, the Aragonese Chunta and the spokesperson for Movement for Dignity and Citizenship of Ceuta (MDyC), Fatima Hamed. The presence of the Drago project is also planned, launched by former deputy Alberto Rodríguez.
In addition, there will be a presence of parties at the international level since, for example, the co-president of the European Green Party, Mélanie Vogel, and the president of the European Left Party (PIE), Walter Baier, will be present.
However, there will also be some absence, such as the case of Més per Mallorca, linked to the ‘Turia Agreement’ and which will not attend since its strategy for the next general elections does not include the alliance with Sumar.
TENSIONS BETWEEN WE CAN, BUT WITH THE SUPPORT OF VARIOUS POSITIONS
But the paradigmatic case lies in the tensions with the leadership of Podemos, which to cover it demanded a minimum and bilateral agreement to deploy open primaries with a view to electing candidates and setting the weight of each formation, which has not been achieved.
To date there has been no progress and there have been mixed messages, since Díaz said that Podemos had no excuses for not attending and asked the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, to attend while the also Minister of Social Rights replied that she had not. he understood why he was engaging with them and that he had the “key to unity.”
However, several positions from Podemos have deviated from the line set by the leadership and will attend the launch of Díaz without waiting for that pact, as is the case of the regional coordinator of Galicia, Borja San Ramón, and his counterpart in Navarra, Begoña Alfaro, as well as the deputies in Congress Antón Gómez-Reino and Txme Guijarro, the regional parliamentarians Naiara Davó and Nacho Escartín.
Some presences that the purple ones minimize since they are aware that some of these deputies have been aligned with Díaz for a long time.
Faced with this clash, various socialist officials have appealed to Podemos and Sumar to reach an agreement so that there is only one alternative candidacy to them.
Both Podemos and Sumar attribute a lack of understanding for the position of the opposite side. For example, from the platform they indicate that they offered two commitment documents with open primaries but asking Podemos to assume a bilateral framework, and not forget that there are fifteen parties involved in the project.
For their part, from the purple side they suspect that this requirement may be incompatible with conversations that are being held with other parties, that not signing a pact for open primaries is contradictory to Sumar’s speech, they feel that their legitimacy is being challenged to raise proposals to this process and warn of the error for this space to try to weaken them.
In other sectors involved in the process, they indicate that the negotiations for confluence agreements will intensify following the 28-M elections and ask to focus the focus on the announcement of Díaz’s candidacy, to strengthen his figure.
