Podemos is trying to redefine its role in the left space after a turbulent few months and at its most delicate moment. And for that, it needs to reconfigure the road map laid out in its last Citizens’ Assembly. Only two years have passed since the Congress that appointed Ione Bellara as Secretary General and decided that the strategy would include Yolanda Díaz leading the Unidas Podemos space.
After months of tension with the second vice president, the party believes that mandate has expired and is therefore planning to offer the base a process of “debate” and “reflection” to explore next steps. This collective reflection will take place around a document drafted by the leadership, in which it proposes that from now on Podemos can only sign alliances in which an open primary is guaranteed, without vetoes or restrictions by other actors.
“On November 4, Podemos will vote on the political document that we will publish today. In order to strengthen the organization politically and collectively,” the general secretary said this Saturday in front of a thousand supporters, according to the party. More than 600 managed to get into the Círculo de Bellas Artes theater and many others stayed outside after the event on screens in other rooms. The event was attended by members of other political forces such as Gabriel Ruffian of ERC; Carlos Sanchez Mato, of IU; or Juantxo López de Uralde, from Alianza Verde. The organizers planned to hold this rally at the beginning of the academic year in Lavapies, but they had to change the plan due to the weather.
After Bellara’s announcement this morning, the management handed over to the State Citizens’ Council – the most important body among the assemblies – a document that it prepared and which will be the starting point for the organization’s bases to change it from Monday and support it in a vote in about a month and a half. A document titled “Strength to Continue Transformation” Provides a brief overview of the party’s trajectory over these nearly ten years and offers some guidelines for the short and medium term.
“Two and a half years ago, we proposed Yolanda Díaz as a candidate for the entire Unidas Podemos space, in order to expand our electoral results and to aspire to the power of the majority of the progressive bloc. “Unfortunately, the expectations were not met,” said the text, which Bellara publicly expressed this Saturday. “In these years, and I say this with great pain, Podemos has been subjected to a process that cannot be called unity,” said the party’s leader, who warned that, looking to the future, “the agreements cannot be repeated under these conditions. “.
This will is reflected in the document, which the bases vote on in three points. Podemos states that it will reach electoral unity agreements as long as, above all, “it is useful, convenient and efficient” politically and electorally; There is a “mutual respect for autonomy” of the forces included in this virtual coalition; Finally, “lists of candidates are always formed through open primaries without restrictions and without vetoes.”
Podemos claims that part of the situation the party is currently in is due, among other things, to the conditions Summar imposed on them during the coalition pact negotiations for the July 23 election. The pact Podemos agreed to sign amid allegations against Yolanda Díaz that she “vetoed” Equality Minister Irene Montero. After these elections, the party went from 23 seats in the Congress to only five, among which its “number two” is not to be found.
That is why the leadership of the party now wants to submit to internal bodies and registrants a formula that protects these open primaries, without restrictions or vetoes in all electoral agreements in which it participates. This is what was on the table at the start of negotiations in January for a coalition with Sumer. These talks only resumed after the May 28 regional and local elections, and early elections barely left room for this type of open process to finally take place.
The approach to these conditions when signing agreements is relevant because the political cycle is not closed. While the possibility of a repeat coalition government is on the table, Younts’ terms make a deal more difficult and portends the eventual horizon of a repeat election. In such a scenario, Podemos would require Sumar to hold an open primary to join the coalition. In addition, there will be European Parliament elections this summer, where Podemos can offer a separate list. These elections are held on a single-constituency basis, a system that penalizes splits less than general elections. Podemos, in fact, invaded the European elections nine years ago.
without dual combat
The party also wants to set out in a political document several issues that will be decisive when it comes to relations with other forces in the political space, and specifically with Sumer, at a time when Yolanda Díaz is already preparing a political design. The party, which after the formation of the coalition government, will be deployed through the assembly. This political project aims to be a kind of platform addition different people or organizations.
And on this point, Podemos emphasizes in this document: there is no double combatant. “Podemos is an autonomous political force that will always have its own roadmap, program, governing bodies and decision-making mechanisms led by the military and registered.” “Podemos” respects other political forces and the people active in them, and precisely for this reason, there is no double military in “Podemos”, the text says.
That is, they will in no way be involved in any broader platform that Sumar (Movimiento Sumar) may offer once it is configured as a party. This relationship will always be subject to future electoral pacts and always with these requirements. Nor will he allow his military officials into other organizations, a message that has become relevant since members of the party’s leadership, such as Nacho Alvarez or Alejandra Jacinto, decided to join Sumar’s campaign as spokespeople, which did not sit well with some sectors of the party. .
The separation from the project led by Yolanda Díaz, visible in the public statements of Podemos leaders for months, will remain in writing if the registrants sign the text drawn up by the management. There are plenty of references, most of them veiled, to how the vice president has built his leadership around a new platform.
“In the face of anti-politics, hollow personalism, rhetoric against ‘parties’ and calls to ‘overcome organizations’ – a pernicious and dangerous discourse of social breakdown – we must value and protect organization and the military,” the document said. . Díaz launched the embryo of his political platform in the summer of 2022, calling for the removal of the role of political formations from the center. “It’s not about parties, it’s not about acronyms, it’s about collective intelligence, thinking about a better country,” he said at the time.
“To be a force that can transform an individualistic society, it is impossible to reinforce individualism and stigmatize organizations and people who come together with other people to change something.” Society is not the sum of individuals, as neoliberal rhetoric suggests. Society is built by institutions, by social fabric, by organizations: it is the power that transforms,” Podemos now answers, though without clear mention.
Strengthen the organization
Through this process, the leadership of Podemos wants to mark a change in ideological and political direction before the celebration of a new civil assembly, but also seeks to strengthen the weakened organization both territorially and organically. The results of the municipal and regional elections left the party with almost no institutional power in these areas, with a significant loss of economic resources, which forced it to turn to the ERE. This institutional weakness may also affect the party’s expansion into territories, a traditional deficit of the party.
For this reason, and also as a way of sending a message to militants who may be disoriented by the emergence of a new political force, Podemos wants to include its bases and territories in this debate. “By debating this document, we can begin a participatory process of ideological and organizational strengthening for a new cycle,” the text says, citing several elements: “A. A legislative program that will update our country’s blueprint to date. b. “Organizational Strengthening Plan with Clear Combatant Protagonism.”
“In the new stage, we need all the hands and all the intelligence of the Podemos people in the leadership of the progressive bloc. This plan includes regional, provincial, island and circle plans. New channels of political participation focused on digital activists will be created. The role of the fighter will be strengthened in all the activities of our organization, such as “Autumn Uni”, “Spring Festival” or the municipal meeting,” the document says.
The party now entrusts the document to its circles, who can check and correct it. In the coming weeks, it will be studied first in meetings with the militants, then in regional meetings with those registered and the organic and institutional positions of the party, and finally it will be transferred to the voting of all the bases. The party plans to convene a political conference on November 4, in which the entire previous process will be staged with open debates and speeches, and finally, the result of the vote will be announced.
Source: El Diario
