With Sumar trying to distance himself from the PSOE, especially in the Government’s management of the housing problemThis Saturday, Podemos made a clear demonstration that it is not willing to let itself eat up the diminished terrain it has left, that of the hard and resistant left. The central event of its Autumn University, Change everything we cannot acceptwas a succession of messages against the PSOE, constantly equated to the PP. Above all, because of his position on an issue: the “genocide” of Israel. The general secretary of the party, Ione Belarra, issued a direct warning to Pedro Sánchez’s Executive. ”If he wants the support of Podemos,” he said, he has to “break commercial relations” with Israel, “lower rents by law and end speculation” with housing, the other star topic of the morning. There – at least now – Belarra sets the bar for the Government to achieve the support of the four Podemos deputies just when the negotiation to approve the 2024 budgets is approaching, which could determine the duration of the legislature.
There was not the slightest allusion to the will for unity expressed by IU. The successive speakers at the rally Fall Uni They ostentatiously ignored Sumar, focusing on the direct confrontation with the PSOE, seasoned this time with a warning about their support that follows lines that this same week Pablo Iglesias had already outlined. Despite the silence about Sumar, in the speeches there was a criticism – disdainful, but a criticism – of the main group on the left of the socialists, especially when they insisted on the idea that Sánchez now governs “alone,” Belarra stated. “Without pressure and without noise,” in the words of Irene Montero, for whom “the only thing the president can boast about” is what he did when he governed with Unidas Podemos, between 2020 and 2023, such as the increase in the minimum wage and the “feminist laws.” In contrast, Belarra defends Podemos as “the voice of resistance and dignity”. “We are very alone in Congress,” he added, in what sounded like another veiled criticism of Sumar, now presented as a mere appendage of the PSOE without its own identity.
An idea appeared in all the interventions: Podemos is a party that was crushed by the lawfare –“The umpteenth fake case has just been filed, Neurona”, recalled Pablo Fernández, Secretary of Organization and spokesperson for the party – and the dirty media game, but which has survived. Now, although its representation has been reduced – it has four deputies and barely any autonomous presence left – the message that its leaders send to the militancy is that they are willing to continue waging war. “Let’s remember who we are and where we come from,” Belarra harangued, asking to defend “the values.”
Montero was the one who expanded the most on equating the PP and the PSOE, which she accused of multiple similarities. Although last year they governed together, Podemos now seems to be in a political galaxy other than that of the socialists. PP and PSOE say that Israel “is a friendly state,” said the MEP, ignoring the Government’s diplomatic confrontations with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Executive and focusing on the fact that Spain is “a transit country for the weapons that Israel uses to murder children.” and Palestinian girls.” Montero assigns the status of “accomplices of the genocides” to socialists and popular activists. Both, PP and PSOE, continued the former Minister of Equality, “are in the institutions to defend the rentiers”, both “have voted together for that racist and miserable pact of migration and asylum” in Europe, both “always have people willing to put their hand in the box”, the two “applaud Blackrock with their ears” and other investment funds, the two “hand over the judicial power to the most reactionary and undemocratic powers”…
In Montero’s opinion, the “established power” seeks a return to the “two-party system” that erases the legacy of Podemos and silences its voice. “They did not throw out the Government because Podemos dragged the PSOE into doing what it did not want to do,” proclaimed Pablo Fernández, Secretary of Organization, who ended his speech loudly with “enough of complicity” with Israel’s attack on its neighboring countries.
There was no self-criticism – nor is such an act a very propitious context – for the strong electoral setback experienced by the party, which less than a decade ago enjoyed 5 million votes and 69 deputies. The tone was rather one of celebration that the formation saved the match ball from survival. Clinging to the visibility given to them by their two MEPs, especially Irene Montero, the purples now face a process of internal renewal. The training plans to end on November 30. election of up to five regional executives: Extremadura, Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Euskadi and Galicia. Two others, La Rioja and Aragón, will be renewed later. Belarra’s party leaves, in principle for June of next year, its V Citizen Assembly to decide the next General Secretariat, right now in the hands of Ione Belarra, who shares the spotlight with Montero and also with Pablo Iglesias, who from his media position He continues to be a reference for the party.
The event also served Podemos to vindicate its international alliances, with the participation of deputy Jeremy Corbin, former leader of the Labor Party, from which he was expelled and with whose current line he is extremely harsh; the Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, from France Insoumise; and the Portuguese MEP Catarina Martins, from the Left Bloc, who during her speech stated: “We have not sold out.” That is exactly the strong idea of Podemos now.
