The socialists analyze each gesture of the vice president, begin to show misgivings about her “transversal discourse” and speculate about the hypothetical pact with Podemos
The socialists analyze these days in greater detail the movements of Yolanda Díaz than those of Pedro Sánchez himself. Every word and gesture of the second vice president is scrutinized to the millimeter. The PSOE leadership anticipates that the fate of the coalition in December, when general elections are held, will depend as much or more on it than on the Prime Minister. About the socialist candidacy, beyond its results at the polls, there are few doubts. On Diaz’s, many.
The main one, on which everything depends, resides in si Podemos will finally be part of the project of the also head of Labor, called Sumar. The debut of his candidacy, in which IU, the Comunes, Compromís and Más País will also be represented, will take place on April 2 in Madrid. For now, the party led by Ione Belarra, Minister of Social Affairs, requires a prior commitment to participate in this appointment that the electoral lists will be configured through open primaries to all citizens. Díaz’s entourage is suspicious of this election mechanism.
The informal presentation
The vice president will officially present herself as a candidate for Moncloa within 10 days. His first candidate speechHowever, it took place last Tuesday, during the first day of Vox’s motion of no confidence. In a decision that was intended to underline the unity and coalition strength, Sánchez gave Díaz part of the leadership of the response to Ramón Tamames. During an hour of speech, Díaz praised the milestones of the Government (mainly those of his department, such as the labor reform and the increase in the minimum wage) and praised the majority of the ministers, both socialists and purple.
Was a speech clearly “social democrat & rdquor;, several socialist positions coincide. This is where more doubts arise. With Pablo Iglesias in charge of all that space, the distribution was clear: the former vice president was addressing the electorate that is located to the left of the PSOE. But Díaz’s approach is much more “transversal & rdquor;. It also appeals to Sánchez voters. “His intervention of him was glue for the coalition, it is clear. But be careful that this glue does not also have some poison for us & rdquor ;, explains a Socialist deputy. Another leader agrees only with a part of this thesis. “It may end up taking away a vote from us in the general elections, yes, but that’s not the important thing,” he concludes. The important thing, in the end, will be how the two partners and the rest of the investiture block are in front of PP and Vox”.
The scenario after 28-M
The Socialists are not clear that there will be an understanding in the space located to their left. Last Tuesday, after the second vice president’s speech in the debate on Vox’s unusual and unsuccessful motion of no confidence, several senior PSOE officials, as well as members of the Government, publicly praised her words from the Congressional speaker’s rostrum, that they were all a vindication of the coalition. In private, however, the same leaders attached great importance to the coldness with which Podemos welcomed Díaz’s speech.
There is a enormous concern in the PSOE about how this will all end. “Podemos is tightening the rope: with us, highlighting the friction every day, and with Díaz. He is leaning over the precipice and we do not rule out that he ends up throwing himself off it. Pablo Iglesias already did it in 2019, by provoking the repetition of elections & rdquor ;, explains a minister.
Even so, the majority of those consulted in the socialist ranks trust in an agreement between the second vice president with Belarra and Irene Montero, Minister of Equality. Even so, they rule out that the pact arrives before the municipal and regional elections on May 28. The most widespread thesis in the socialist wing of the Executive and in the leadership of the party is that Podemos will get some poor results in those electionssomething that will also influence when maintaining some communities (Valencia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands), and that later will have no choice but to join Sumar, which does not attend the imminent ones in two months.
But nothing is clear. The PSOE, in fact, is already beginning to make calculations about what would happen if Díaz went one way and Podemos the other in the general elections. If there are separate lists, the Socialists believe that this will benefit them in the result at the polls, because there would be “useful vote movements & rdquor; to them. But the sum against the bloc of the right and the extreme right would be greatly complicated. Governing again, considers a minister, “would be very, very difficult & rdquor ;.