Yolanda Díaz and the ecosystem of so-called alternative left parties that she has led under the aegis of Sumar since the 23rd elections have asked – once again – Pedro Sánchez to act after the sexual scandals that have erupted since July. … explodes within the Socialist Party. Even if on this occasion the second vice-president raised her voice a little more against the PSOE, the consequences of her actions are, for the moment, zero. The warnings of the summer were also ineffective, after the entry into prison of the former secretary of the Socialist Organization Santos Cerdán, when the Minister of Labor and her supporters saw their government partner disoriented – exactly the same as today – and gave him one last opportunity – another – to reinvigorate the legislative body.
The speech is the same as six months ago, the scenario, they say, is not. Sumar is now speaking about the biggest government crisis the coalition has gone through since its creation in 2020, when the role of minority partner was played by Unidas Podemos instead of Sumar. “We are in a brutal situation, the worst since the pandemic,” confess the voices of the space led by Díaz. And faced with this “brutal” scenario, those of the second vice president consider that Sánchez has three options at his disposal: call elections, reinvigorate the legislative and executive, or resist. Even if the last of them would lead, deplore these same Sumar sources, to “catastrophic” consequences.
“(The PSOE) is wrong, we need to get our act together. “Just by resisting, we will not get to 2027”, warn these same voices from the space led by also Minister of Labor, who continue to demand that the president restructure his Cabinet, which is limited only to the socialist wing of it but is not limited to the punctual departure of ministerial candidates in the event of convocation or early elections, as is the case of Pilar Alegría in Aragon. A gesture of such importance, they believe, would be “gasoline” for the coalition. All this despite the fact that the political forces of the Plurinational Group that sit in the Council of Ministers, such as the United Left (IU), accused Díaz of having made this announcement last Thursday without agreeing with them.
The cost of not undertaking this facelift which settles once and for all the debate on political responsibilities in the various cases of corruption and sexual harassment, they say, will be high: they fear that Vox, the party of Santiago Abascal, could take advantage of the social unrest and “sweep away” the next general elections, scheduled, barring any surprises, in two years. “We must govern well. To govern while resisting is to die without dignity, in the wrong way, dragged and beaten. The debate is whether we should stay as we are or change so that it doesn’t drag us down,” reflects the minority partner, while throwing a question into the air: “Are they going to drag us into an agony like that of Felipe (González) in ’96?”
This is why they demand changes to the PSOE at three levels: political, programmatic and formal. Of course, despite the harshness of their words and the tensions and noises that have existed in recent days within the space, they assure Sumar that the option of leaving the Council of Ministers “was never on the table.”
“To govern while resisting is to die without dignity, beaten. “Are they going to drag us into agony like that of Felipe (González) in 1996?” those of Díaz ask.
Díaz’s tantrum has yet to have any effect. It wouldn’t be the first time he didn’t do it either. All this after the president himself publicly slammed the door on the minority partner’s demands on Monday, during his annual report. In Sumar, however, patients are waiting for him. According to those of the second vice president, the fact that it was the PSOE itself that knocked on their door to ask for a delay until after the Christmas holidays to manage a crisis that, according to Sumar, is out of control, gives them hope that Sánchez will remedy it. Likewise, they are encouraged by the fact that the socialists have turned to them in search of initiatives to give impetus to this legislature. “The changes will not happen in the next few days, but they will happen as soon as possible,” they tell Sumar.
Meanwhile, Sumar will have to settle for a meeting with the PSOE scheduled for this Friday. An urgent “high-level” summit that Díaz’s party demanded and which Ferraz reduced to a meeting between the secretaries of the Organization for which there is still neither place nor time.
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