The Minister of Equality opens a season of lethargy within the organization after being left off the electoral lists
“We are going to give Irene a break”, Ione Belarra came to announce the highest management body of Podemos
Irene Montero will not ask for the vote Yolanda Diaz in his career to the generals. The leader, who has been left off the charts and that this same Saturday he denounced an “unfair veto” by the Galician vice president, he renounces participating in the electoral campaign for the elections on July 23, where Podemos will run within the Sumar coalition, assuming a secondary role after signing the pact left out the Minister of Equality, considered the “greatest asset” of the partyaccording to Ione Belarra herself.
The State Citizen Council, the highest body of Podemos between assemblies, met this Saturday with maximum expectation, given the possibility that the party would break at the last minute with Sumar after Díaz’s refusal to include Irene Montero. But in his initial intervention, Belarra cleared up the mystery and confirmed that he would not break the agreement, despite strong criticism in recent days.
The purple secretary general described the decision as a “political error” and assured that “unfortunately” it had not been “possible” to reverse this situation. In addition, she advanced the new role of Podemos in the next stage: “Podemos assumes its role in this candidacy, a modest role where we are not going to mark the strategy of the campaign. Our job will be to be behind Yolanda Díaz and do what she asks of us.”
Behind closed doors, Belarra spoke again to insist that the reins of the electoral campaign remain in the hands of Díaz, who will ultimately be responsible for successes or failures. “It is the moment of Yolanda Díaz”, was one of the main ideas that emerged during the meeting. The signing of the agreement, accepting the exclusion of Montero, has generated rejection in one part of the address, which interprets it as a claudication. Given this, the purple secretary general tried this Saturday to appease the spirits of the sector that has not quite digested the agreement and continues to be belligerent towards Yolanda Díaz. The message was one of pragmatism: it is time to resist now with the aim of rearming again in the future.
The leader also came to transfer the end of tensions with Yolanda Díazwith a drop in decibels after the strong tensions experienced in recent months. “The battle is over”, They come to summarize some present sources, by way of conclusion. The unknown from now on will be in if the truce will continue beyond July 23 or if, once the appointments with the polls have passed, Podemos will go back on the offensive.
“A break for Irene”
What is clear is the “modest” role that Podemos assumes in the campaign. Belarra defended in the meeting that the party becomes a purely testimonial actor in the coming weeks and will have a minimal role in the race to the polls. This step back will be total in the case of Irene Monterowhich will not participate in any way in the coming weeks. “We are going to give Irene a rest”the general secretary came to announce before the highest body of the formation.
Minutes before, Belarra had publicly pronounced on the near future of Montero, dhinting at the continuity of the leader in the organization: “You are not only part of the present of Podemos, but an indispensable part of our future”. His presence, whatever it may be, will enter a kind of torpor, without participating in the electoral campaign and leaving the public spotlight. Since the beginning of express negotiations between Podemos and Yolanda Díaz, the Minister of Equality had already kept silent. A situation that will be extended in this new phase.
The appointment on Saturday was from the outset conceived as a tribute to Irene Monterowho also gave a speech broadcast in the open, where he portrayed himself as a victim of the “reactionary offensive”: “Now they are showing us harshly the consequences that they want to make us pay for speaking, for not shutting up, for conquering rights. Political violence and its discipline, “he warned, slipping that with his fall Sumar had accepted” the rules of the reaction game “.
Once the cameras are off behind closed doors, Montero spoke again in a very different intervention from those that have been common in the leader. If the Minister for Equality is usually characterized in these spaces by her vehemence and heated speeches, on this occasion she defended the party’s position in a cold and rational manner, assuring that it was the way to ensure the best options for the party, which after the agreement has 15 starting positions and 8 secured deputies. A “possible” vision, according to some of the witnesses, with the idea of rebuilding itself after the bad results of 28M and consolidating itself in the medium term.