The PSOE is aware that, even if Sumar is angered by the news regarding cases of corruption and sexual harassment affecting the socialists, he will not break the government coalition. And, with this life insurance, the majority formation of the Executive refuses to reorient its roadmap despite the requests of its partners. This Tuesday, the PSOE accepted Sumar’s request to hold a meeting to analyze the state of their relations, but socialist sources assure that President Pedro Sánchez does not intend to replace any of his ministers or accept the measures proposed by the minority partner in matters of housing.
Publicly, the socialists are even unhappy with Sumar leader Yolanda Díaz, who has been very critical of the PSOE’s response to the scandals. This Tuesday, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, asked about the changes that Sumar demands both in the composition and in the political action of the Government, using sarcasm. “all my love and all my respect for Sumar and for Vice President Yolanda Díaz, I have only good words and good thoughts for her,” he quipped.
At the PSOE, there is general unease over Sumar’s actions in recent days. They understand the discomfort of their partners, even if several voices in Moncloa underline a error in expressing it. Some argue that Díaz called for a major overhaul of the government because it is “weak”, and others directly disregard Sumar’s agitations and demands and ignore the second vice president.
The president of the government, the spokesperson and several ministers and socialist leaders agree on how to respond to Sumar’s recent demands. The objective is minimize the anger of Díaz’s people as much as possible to the point of treating it as something usual or everyday within the coalition, even if the minority partner had never before requested a government crisis or spoken of the PSOE in these terms.
Both in the balance of the government that he presented at the Palace of Moncloa and in the meeting that followed during the Christmas drink, Sánchez wanted to make his partners understand that the choice and dismissal of ministers is his exclusive decision. In any case, he closed the door to this option, ensuring that his intention was rather a political push of the Government than an overhaul of its members. For Sánchez, in fact, the debate on the survival of the Executive is more superficial than deep, which his partners do not see that way at all.
He thus put aside any major reform to calm the other part of the coalition. This is a point that Pilar Alegría also insisted on this Tuesday during her last Council of Ministers as spokesperson. He emphasized that, rather than “offering” them something, their partners had to understand that they shared a “common road map”. “We have a responsibility and people ask us to continue working,” he stressed. In other words, the government understands that Sumar is a political party that has different opinions on certain issues, but it does not appreciate the criticism that has been leveled at it in recent days.
In fact, among the socialist ministers there are those who took the situation better and those who directly retaliated against Díaz. Fernando Grande Marlaska, for example, assured that the relationship with Sumar is in perfect condition and with the same degree of trust. More direct was Óscar Puente, who reminded Sumar previous by Íñigo Errejónwho left his job following a sexual harassment complaint, and told them they should always “remodel them”. Furthermore, he mocked the government’s remodeling project, saying it was tantamount to “offering sacrifices on the altar.”
In the end, the only gesture that the socialists decided to grant to Sumar was a party meeting —not between Yolanda Díaz and Pedro Sánchez—, framing it, in any case, in their usual and daily relationship with this party with which they share a coalition. All this, taking into account the fact that Sánchez agreed to a meeting with the ERC leader a few days agoOriol Junqueras, a meeting which will take place in early 2026.
Those of Díaz insist on housing
Sumar, despite everything, tries to maintain confidence in his strategy and public pressure They will end up forcing the PSOE to moveno matter how much the socialists ignored their demands to change the government, implement anti-corruption measures and intervene in the housing market. This Tuesday, the deputy spokesperson of the alliance in Congress, IU deputy Enrique Santiago, assured that his party was accustomed “to the PSOE always putting no first.” “But this is a coalition government, and then comes calm work and yes,” Santiago predicted.
The deputy spokesperson, however, himself recognized that the parties that make up Sumar are “very upset” because the PSOE “seems totally paralyzed”. And he gives as an example of this quagmire the socialists’ refusal to accept even Sumar’s most urgent demands for housing: the mandatory extension of rental contracts that expire in 2026 at the same price as until now. “We must guarantee” that this measure and others such as “the suspension of expulsions of vulnerable families” are approved, and “we are very concerned” because this negotiation is not closed, Santiago warned.
Sumar sources within the government recognize, in the same sense, that in recent days there has been no progress in the negotiation of this extension of the rental contracts, although they assure that they have recently begun to see greater willingness on the part of the PSOE for the agreement. However, these sources do not rule out having to impose a vote within the Executive on this measure, particularly in the Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs (CDGAE)one of the filters in which they decide which issues to discuss in the Council of Ministers, as Sumar already proposed a few weeks ago.
Although the fact that Vice President Yolanda Díaz presented it for discussion within this body does not necessarily imply that the Housing Decree would end up being debated in the Council of Ministers, Yes, this would force the PSOE to oppose expressly to the measures if you wish to block them. However, Sumar is running out of time, as The logic would be to try to force the socialists to move before the end of the year. —Haknowing that the main of these initiatives is the extension of rental contracts which expire in 2026 – and that the Council of Ministers only has one ordinary meeting scheduled for 2025, next Tuesday 23. The CDGAE usually meets the day before, on Monday, so Sumar—if he does not withdraw his threat— I would only have a few days to try to get the PSOE to rectify the situation.
However, the option of leaving the Executive is not on Sumar’s table, at least for the moment, and this deprives the party of its main pressure tool against a closed PSOE. Sources from the sector closest to Yolanda Díaz tried this Tuesday not to deny the possibility of a possible rupture, but at the same time they did not specify what would be the point of no return from which sharing a government with the PSOE would be impossible. “What we are not going to do is support a government of whores and corrupt people”declared a leader, who however did not specify to what extent this corruption and sexual harassment had to be anchored within the PSOE for Sumar to consider it unbearable.
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