Podemos is starting an internal process to define its strategy and the direction of the party. The Secretary General, Ione Bellara, said at an event this Saturday that they will open a period of “reflection” and “collective debate” with the bases to study what organic and strategic steps should follow the training after the change in the political cycle. The left, in which they lost the hegemony of space to the project led by Yolanda Díaz.
“I want to ask those registered to join the militants, all those people who think that Podemos is a necessary tool. I want to tell you that we are strengthening Podemos. We need your intellect, your hands and your heart, your militant commitment to restore militancy,” the Podemos leader said at an event in the Fine Arts Circle in front of about 1,000 people, according to the organization (half of whom followed the event on screens). in neighboring rooms) with which the party wanted to send a message of political rearmament.
This process of basic consultations will last for a month and a half until next November 4 and will be articulated around the political document developed by the party leadership. “On November 4, Podemos will vote on the political document that we will publish today. in order to strengthen the organization politically and collectively”, said Belara. “If you’re ready to fight, so are we,” he said.
The proposal serves to define the road map that the party announced at the Fourth Citizens’ Assembly, which has become obsolete for Belara. In this body, the lines were drawn for the political cycle that began then and in which the party understood, as its founder indicated a few months ago, that the leadership of the political space should remain in the hands of Yolanda Díaz.
This is how it appears in the political documents of the Fourth Civil Assembly: “Pablo Iglesias was able to understand that it was time to pave the way for a new leadership. Our activities in 2020 created the leadership of Yolanda Díaz in the government and Unidas Podemos, and we must take care of it, strengthen it and promote it with all our strength.
Podemos realized that we had to leave the stage that was “led by Pablo’s leadership and personality” and build a new party with “more collective protagonism”, led by “mainly female colleagues” and that looked beyond Madrid. This assembly elected Ione Bellara as Secretary General and laid the foundation for a kind of bicephaly: Pablo Iglesias’ successor at the head of the formation and Yolanda Díaz leading the Unidas Podemos coalition.
“Two and a half years ago, we held the fourth assembly and you elected me as the general secretary. It was and remains one of the greatest honors,” recalls Belara. “I think it is fair to admit that the goals with which we came to this assembly, to offer Yolanda Díaz to compete with the power of the majority in the government, because our goal has always been to win and deepen the transformations… the goals have not been achieved,” said the party leader.
In his speech, Belara criticized the process of unity of the left for the last election process and even criticized that what has happened so far can be called that. “In these years, and I say this with great pain, Podemos has been subjected to a process that cannot be called unity,” said the leader, who warns the future that “under these circumstances, agreements cannot be repeated. ”
This is exactly the way in which Yolanda Díaz created the leadership of the space, because Pablo Iglesias gave her the baton and Podemos officially accepted it in its political documents, which led to the separation of the party from the second vice-president. the decisions he made in dealing with other political powers, such as Madrid; By negotiating a unity coalition in the Andalusian elections and managing some crises within the government lately, they are driving the two parties apart.
Therefore, Podemos believes that the party should think about what role it should play now, as part of the coalition and Sumari parliamentary group, but waiting to reconfirm its space and try to be the main party on the left again. . And it is this reflection that the leadership intends to transfer to the grassroots in a process of debate with registered members, organic and institutional positions, which will end with a vote and a subsequent political conference, which will be the beginning of this process.
The document, which comes from the management and will be accepted this Saturday by the State Civil Council, which meets this afternoon in Madrid, will first be made available to the circles so that they can review and modify it. Later there will be time to share this text with the militants in meetings across the country and later in regional meetings.
Proposals for government negotiations
In the differentiation that Podemos wants to show against Sumari, this Saturday he put forward a series of proposals for talks with the Socialist Party to form a new progressive coalition government. In particular, he put forward five points in accordance with the demands that the party has been making for several months.
In particular, they demanded a government deal that includes permanent cuts to public transport and a cap on food companies’ profit margins; obligation to update the judicial branch; A moratorium on all tenancy agreements in the next legislature and an increase in the minimum wage to €1,500.
As a fundamental part of these proposals, which have already been submitted to Soumar and the PSOE, Podemos has requested Irene Montero to be Minister of Equality in the next coalition government. “We can think that feminism is the most transformative social movement. It proposes to reorganize the way we live so that it is a compatible, free, safe life for all,” defended Bellara, who argued that moving forward with these proposals requires “courage” and “the ability to stand on your own two feet.” “Therefore, we believe that it is necessary for Irene to continue to lead the Ministry of Equality. “I’m officially proposing it,” he said.
Source: El Diario
