Leaders who were related to the former leader of the party show their concern about the messages he sends against Yolanda Díaz: “You have to know how to leave”
Survive the departure of your leader. That was the challenge in Podemos a year ago now, when on June 13, 2021, Ione Belarra was appointed as the new general secretary. The task was not at all easy given the imprint of Pablo Iglesias, who designed the party in his image and likeness and managed to control the organization with an iron fist without losing the affection of his most faithful, who were dwindling as this drift was accused.
One year after renewing the address, the challenge has not been fulfilled. And the reason is that the main premise, the departure of Pablo Iglesias, has not taken place. From different tribunes and microphones, the leader has intervened in the political direction of the party that he founded and has questioned from his position the steps that Yolanda Díaz was taking to lay the foundations for his candidacy. a role that annoying in some sectors of Podemos, who were once loyal to their then secretary general and now admit “disappointed & rdquor; due to the drift of their former leader, whom they followed in all the battles.
When he announced his departure We thought he was going to go. But he hasn’t&rdquor ;, summarizes a leader of Podemos, who in recent times views with resignation the positions that Iglesias has adopted after his multiple attacks on his successor in office. “Podemos owes everything to Pablo Iglesias, but you have to know how to leave& rdquor ;, these voices stand out, admitting their “disappointment & rdquor; with the leader.
Iglesias signed at the beginning of the course for several media outlets -Cadena SER or Rac1, among others-, and since then his weekly interventions have brought him back to the forefront of current affairs on many occasions. In the first weeks in which it was released in the media, Yolanda Díaz’s team remained attentive and listened with some expectation to the leader’s words on the radio microphones, but some of his considerations, interpreted as a way of marking the way for the Galician, led to the decision to try to subtract iron, placing him as a “tertullian & rdquor ;.
The point of no return between Díaz and Iglesias was the celebration of the act of Valencia, advanced in the first issue of EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑAa medium of Prensa Ibérica to which this newspaper also belongs, to which leaders of Podemos were not invited but yes policies of other formations such as Ada Colau, Monica Oltra either Monica Garcia. After that, Iglesias criticized the decision: “I would have loved them to be there, not only because of the work they do, but because they have been two women who have been particularly attacked, more attacked than any left-wing politician in this country,” he assured on Cadena SER , referring to Irene Montero and Ione Belarra.
In that speech he also took the opportunity to link Diaz with Manuela Carmena, warning that “There is a very clear awareness on the left that what Manuela Carmena tried at the time -‘we can achieve this without political parties’-, it is clear that it did not work and is not in anyone’s head & rdquor ;. “Everyone is clear that everyone the leaders that Podemos providesbut also IU, they will have to play a very important role“.”And above all you have to leave that closed soon“, he snapped, pressing Diaz regarding the times.
Podemos is currently knocked out, without quite overcoming the departure of its leader, and divided regarding the considerations that his new role arouses; everyone agrees that the future necessarily passes through Yolanda Díaz, as there is no alternative candidate – “that is indisputable & rdquor ;, is the mantra installed in the formation-. But the situation is becoming rarer in large sectors of Podemos who see how the leadership usually picks up the gauntlet that Iglesias throws and issues messages that “are perceived as an attack” that “wears & rdquor; to the second vice-president of the Government.
And this is an issue that worries not only in Podemos but in the parliamentary group, which is also fractured between those who unceremoniously trust Yolanda with the future of space and those who condition their enthusiasm to party interests. In the United We Can group in Congress, forces such as IU and En Comú Podem have already shown themselves to be reliable allies of the vice president, while the deputies of the purple party are divided “in half”, according to one of its members.
“Pick Up Line”
In Podemos it is precisely the position of its leadership with respect to Iglesias that is most worrying. Although there are those who consider that the fact that there is a certain tension between the formation and Yolanda Díaz can “come in handy & rdquor; because it is a way to keep the “tough voter & rdquor; of the left, it is observed with concern how the leadership is issuing the same messages launched by Iglesias days before in his usual press conferences, both those that take place at the party headquarters after the executive meeting, and the weekly ones in Congress of the Deputies, offered by Paul Echenique. “They pick up what he says & rdquor ;, they think.
The episodes that account for this circumstance are many and varied; some of the most recent are the Andalusian case, when Iglesias pressed for placing the Podemos candidate in front a day after Yolanda Díaz advocated for the IU candidate, Inmaculada Nieto, or when Iglesias blamed Díaz for the coalition fiasco, in a speech that Podemos later reproduced; or in the case of Pegasus, when the former vice president put forward the thesis that those responsible were part of “the sewers”, so that later the purple spokesman pointed to an “extrajudicial cell of the CNI”.
The strong bond that exists between Iglesias and Podemos is not only emotional. The leader is the president of the party’s think tank, Instituto República, and maintains a fluid relationship with the leadership. “Iglesias still commands”, maintain some voices. In the gatherings in which he participates refers to Podemos as “my party” and in recent weeks paraded by his program -La Base- the main purple leadersWhat Lilith VerstryngeOrganizing Secretary, Paul Echeniquespokesperson, or Ione BelarraGeneral Secretary.
The leader, who has already campaigned for training in Castilla y León, has also entered Andalusia, where Podemos will cover the presentation of his book this Sunday in Cádiz, in an act that will counter-schedule Yolanda Díaz and Iñigo Errejón, who That same time they will star in a rally in Malaga.
Although there are leaders in the governing bodies who are concerned about Iglesias’s growing offensive towards Díaz -and his direct transference into the party’s strategy-, the truth is that “no one says anything & rdquor ;. There is no discussion in the leadership of Podemos. It still continues, they say, culture established in the stage of Pablo Iglesias, where dissent was not allowed and dissenting voices were punished. The very structure and organization of the party bears witness to this, and proof of this is in Andalusia, where the state leadership carried out negotiations with the rest of the Andalusian parties until the last moments, with a fatal outcome in which the formation was left out of the mark ‘For Andalusia’.