The good result obtained by the United for Extremadura list (formed by Podemos, Izquierda Unida and Alianza Verde) in the 21D elections opens the way to the reconstruction of the far left space in the rest of Spain.
The re-established alliance between Podemos and IU (which Pablo Iglesias and Alberto Garzón inaugurated in May 2016 with the bottle pact) gives clues as to how the internal crisis of this political space can be resolved… without Yolanda Díaz.
The existence of a single far-left list, without Sumar, and the collapse of the PSOE led to the takeoff of the list led by Irene de Miguel: Unidas por Extremadura went from four seats (6% of the votes) in the Regional Assembly to seven (10.25%).
He managed to grow by 54% in number of votes, going from the 36,836 ballots obtained two years ago to 54,189.
Although this growth represents only a very small part of the over 108,000 votes lost for the socialist candidacy directed by Miguel Ángel Gallardo.
After the check, Irene de Miguel presented herself on Sunday evening at the Velada Hotel in Mérida, surrounded by members of her candidacy.
He ruled that President María Guardiola had been “the big loser” on election night and felt that he should step down if he had “a minimum of decency.”
And she confirmed the rebirth of this political force: “The right thought that the transformative left was defeated,” said Irene de Miguel, “and we showed them that this was not the case. We have stood up and we will continue to be the greatest opposition that they will find on this earth, that we will continue to fight and grow.
Unidas por Extremadura obtained three seats (10% of the votes) in the province of Cáceres and four (10.3%) in the province of Badajoz.
We have to go back three decades, to the regional elections of 1995, to find a similar result for the radical left. That year, Izquierda Unida obtained 10.5% of the votes and six deputies in the Assembly of Extremadura.
Since then, the space of the extreme left (represented first by IU, then by Podemos and finally by the alliance of the two) had always remained far from 10%.
Irene de Miguel (Madrid, 1981) has been regional representative of Badajoz since 2011. An agronomist engineer from the Polytechnic of Madrid, she settled with her partner in the municipality of Las Villuercas (Cáceres) to develop a nursery for traditional crop fruits and vegetables.
His electoral program for these elections included the closure of the Almaraz nuclear power plant, a climate change law for Extremadura, the rejection of “macro mining projects”, the creation of an Anti-Corruption Agency and the demand that the central government “criminalization of revolving doors“.
This is a measure that neither Podemos nor Izquierda Unida promoted at the national level, when they assumed government responsibilities.
Last week, Ione Belarra invited Sumar’s ministers to leave the government, if Yolanda Díaz and Ernest Urtasun are really uncomfortable with the PSOE’s sexual harassment and corruption scandals.
The two leaders of Sumar demanded a “fundamental overhaul of government“, to leave behind the trail of scandals that haunts the socialists.
After Friday’s meeting, Sumar sources warned that there had been no “progress” and believed that the PSOE’s refusal to undertake changes endangers the future of the coalition.
However, in the PSOE, we are sure that Yolanda Díaz’s ministers do not intend to leave the executive.
Due to his lack of territorial establishment, Sumar did not run in the Extremadura elections. The main electoral strength of this platform lies in its associated parties: IU, Más Madrid, los Comunes (in Catalonia) and Compromís.
Podemos decided to take advantage of this weakness of its former partners to renew the alliance with Izquierda Unida in Extremadura.
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