“I go one step further: I want to be the first president of my countryI want to be the first female president of Spain,” said Yolanda Díaz, current second vice president of the PSOE-Podemos coalition government and minister of labor and social economy.
He did so on Sunday, during his rollout for December’s national election as leader of Sumarthe platform that he launched nine months ago and with which he toured all over Spain.
Supported by more than 15 leftist formations, the political project of Díaz, a 51-year-old Galician labor lawyer, reveals to Podemos, the minority partner in the coalition government who feels left out, after flirting with Yolanda Díaz as a candidate for a coalition that included them.
Because the party that Pablo Iglesias created in 2014 expected favorable treatment from the vice president who it was anointed with fingers by the former general secretary and founder of Podemos when he resigned from politics and entrusted him with the position of deputy in government.
In power
In May 2021, after being seriously injured by the electoral push of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of the Popular Party, when she swept the polls to preside over the Community of Madrid, Pablo Iglesias has hung up his boots: He left the party and the vice-presidency of Spain, a position he had negotiated with Pedro Sánchez when they signed the government agreement that in 2019 made them the first coalition of Spanish democracy.
“I didn’t like him pointing at me, it’s not democratic at all,” Yolanda Díaz admitted months after Iglesias assumed the vice presidency. “I agreed to be vice president, nothing more,” she added. Indeed, Pablo wanted a lot more stuff and I said no.
Born into the working class and daughter of a militant of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) in hiding, Yolanda Díaz is today the hope of the left-wing parties of the left of the PSOE.
“Everything starts today,” Díaz said on Sunday during his launch at the Antonio Magariños pavilion in Madrid.
“We are tired of protections, of being ignored. We belong to no one but ourselves,” added the candidate, distancing itself from any paternalistic attitude that Podemos feels about her and her political projection.
Ione Belarra, Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 of the government and secretary general of Podemos, spent the whole week asking the Minister of Labor for a gesture: “Yolanda Díaz has in hand that Podemos is at the presentation of its candidacy. We sign a declaration that we commit ourselveskeep the primaries open.
Diaz never took the glove. He has opened the door to his calling, “without marrying” any of his possible future partners. Even if Podemos is the one who could bring the largest volume of voters to that leftist conglomerate that Yolanda Díaz intends to lead.
And while on stage he proposed that “we need to talk about reducing the working day without reducing the salary”, the audience applauded her, among others, the current minister of consumption and federal coordinator of the United Left – a party that Yolanda Díaz left in 2019 -, Alberto Garzón; the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau -and reference for the Catalan branch of Podemos-, and Iñigo Errejón, Pablo Iglesias’s partner in the foundation of the populist party which he then left to create the formation he presides over today, Más País.
Front row
“There were more than 15 political formations that compete with each other today and have been able to rise to the occasion. Therefore, whoever is not there must explain it ”, was Díaz’s response this Monday when asked for information the absence of the leadership of Podemos in its launch act.
Moderated and speaking almost in a whisper, the Minister of Labour President Pedro Sánchez would also like itif the polls in December put him before the alternative of having to re-issue a coalition government.
During the latest no-confidence motion, presented by Vox’s far right and which Sánchez dodged without too much concern, Yolada Díaz was the only government minister who, together with the president and blessed by him, had her turn speak in Parliament to defend the management which had been attacked by the motion of censure.
Podemos ministers, Ione Belarra and Irene Montero, heads of the Ministry of Equality, asked for a lead to be able to speak during the session, but Pedro Sánchez only shared the pulpit with Yolanda Díaz.
It hasn’t been long since Pablo Iglesias left Díaz as vice president, but he also doesn’t want to hear what he himself said almost two years ago: “Yolanda Díaz is the best labor minister in the history of our country – Iglesias assured at the time – He could be the next president of the Spanish government”.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.