THE Extremadura elections on December 21 They will constitute an important testing ground for all the parties that will participate, both on the right – where PP and Vox compete to determine which organization is the majority in this sector in Spain – and on the … it remains -with the particular fight between Podemos and Sumar that, at least, for this time, the purple seem to have won. Meanwhile, the PSOE, with the prosecutions initiated against its candidate, will try not to reap the worst result in history, as predicted by the latest barometer from the Center for Sociological Research (CIS). Opposite is Unidas Por Extremadura, the coalition made up of Podemos, Izquierda Unida and Alianza Verde, which, despite the support of Pedro Sánchez in Madrid, aspires to receive the vote of those dissatisfied with the socialist scandals.
Extremadura is, along with Navarra, an exception on the political map and the only two regional enclaves in which the party led by Ione Belarra and Irene Montero obtained institutional representation in the 28-M regional elections, which represented a setback for the left. In the Foral Community, things went badly in May when the highest institutional position of Podemos (she is third vice-president and advisor for housing, youth and migration policies of the Navarrese executive), Begoña Alfaro, broken with state leaders of the party, after years facing her, for having prioritized the battle with Sumar rather than space unity.
In Extremadura it is different. Council candidate Irene de Miguel, from Podemos, precisely because she is a strong and established leadership that they intend not only to revalidate it, but to strengthen it on the 21-D, which has always maintained its autonomy in the face of Madrid’s decisions while also being favorable to the understanding with Yolanda Díaz as was already seen during the general elections of the 23-J. Something that is generally not common, since, in Andalusia, for example, Belarra nipped in the bud the slightest suspicion of revolution in the face of the order not to reissue Por Andalucía, the project with which the left presented itself to the last Andalusians and which only IU, the Andalusian Popular Initiative and Sumar (formerly Más País) will join again. The price was the resignation of the number two of Podemos Andalucía, also frustrated by the division of the left.
A close friend of the vice president manages to sneak onto the lists despite the implicit veto of Belarra and Montero
The official excuse offered for dancing in Extremadura with the help of the IU, the party that was recently part of the “war government” of the PSOE and Sumar, is that Unidas Por Extremadura is an electoral device that has operated for two consecutive terms. By this rule of three, For Andalusia too; It is represented in the Andalusian parliament and so far Podemos has not left the coalition. The reality is different: we can – or rather Belarra and Montero – He doesn’t want to share the roof with Díaz and his familywhom he constantly invites to join the ranks of the PSOE, and who ended up withdrawing and refusing to appear in this community. Despite this implicit veto on everything related to the Sumar brand that the party founded by Pablo Iglesias boasted, the second vice-president of the government slipped into the lists.
As ABC learned, the state leadership of the party of the also Minister of Labor would have agreed directly with the purple leadership of Extremadura to place Alba Martín Navarra, independent although close to Sumar, as number 22 of Cáceres. A position that is all in all symbolic but this constitutes a nod to Díaz.
Together, but not mixed
“From Sumar we have put all our equipment at your service, also being part of your lists”, boasted a few weeks ago Lara Hernández, the organic leader of Díaz’s party, when she also took the opportunity to request a vote for the candidacy of De Miguel with whom, according to the state leadership of Sumar, there is very good harmony, both personal and professional. It remained to be seen whether any of Sumar’s five ministers, including Díaz herself, who did not completely disagree with the idea, would travel to Extremadura to campaign alongside the regional leaders of Podemos and IU, even if it only made sense to Youth and Children leader Sira Rego. Finally, since the calendar of events is already closed, no events are planned with the ministers of the minority partner of the Executive and only the leaders of the parties that are part of the alliance will be present, such as Maíllo or the Belarra-Montero tandem. The opposite would have put De Miguel in an impasse with the national leadership of his formation. Of course, together, but not mixed. The intention of everyone, especially Podemos, is to avoid unitary photography at all costs.
Regardless, Podemos’ intention is to use Extremadura as game board at your own pace with Sumar and the fact of having managed to corner Sumar in the region – without even allowing him to impose himself on the map – and to attract IU to his side already leaves a foretaste of victory in the Belarra party. The Extremadurians will be the first litmus test of the unity of the so-called alternative left to the PSOE, since they will lay the foundations for future alliances or divorces at the state level for the 2027 general elections, once Podemos has already announced its intention to relaunch its Unidas Podemos 2.0 project, which they aspire to reproduce in the next general elections and in which the “failure” of Sumar has no place.
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