turns to Colau and balances so as not to anger Podemos

The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, closes her most difficult campaign this Friday in Barcelona together with Ada Colau. The leader, already embarking on the presidential race with her ‘Sumar’ platform, has had to make real balances to give support on this 28-M to the electoral interests of her partners (Compromís, Más País, Barcelona en Comú and the rest of parties that form the so-called ‘Turia pact’), but without stepping on the callus of United We Can, a parliamentary group to which he belongs in the Congress of Deputies and with which he is still negotiating to go together to the general elections.

A total of 16 days of rallies, trips and photographs that have been analyzed down to the smallest detail looking for the possibility that the minister would break that image of unity that the minister is working hard to save her project. In total, Díaz has attended 18 events in up to 11 autonomous communities to support candidacies of different sign.

But it has not been easy for the Galician woman to maintain that balance and, on several occasions, it has been inevitably broken to the anger of Podemos, despite the fact that, as her team indicates, 95% of the acts have been with United We Can. On May 15, for example, Díaz was seen very animated for almost half an hour – with toasts included – with the candidates of Más Madrid, Rita Maestre and Mónica García, on the festival of San Isidro. A very different image from the one she had a while later with the candidates for Podemos-IU, Alejandra Jacinto and Roberto Sotomayor, whose meeting barely exceeded a minute. Of course, in said walk through the mythical meadow, Díaz did not get wet with words and only asked voters to mobilize “in favor of the progressive forces” to end the governments of Martínez-Almeida and Ayuso in Madrid.

But his most delicate position has come in the last days of the campaign. This past Wednesday, the leader came to the rescue of Podemos in Alicante to ask that the purple candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, Héctor Illueca, be voted for. She did it in the territory of Compromís, a formation with which she maintains a stable alliance and with whose candidate, Joan Baldoví, she has a very close friendship.

His movement is based on pure electoral calculation. The latest surveys published, including that of The country, They place Podemos at around 5% of the estimated vote in the Valencian Community, which means that its presence in the courts hangs by a thread. Falling below that horizon would mean his absence in parliament and, most likely, the possibility that PP and Vox could form a government in the region.

For this reason, and despite the fact that Compromís is an ally of the platform that Yolanda Díaz promotes for the generals, the minister decided to publicly bet on the United Podemos candidate. . “If we do not reach the objective, they will leave -in reference to the right- and what the Valencians want are decent wages, feminism, happiness and another way of doing things”, highlighted Díaz in a call for the concentration of the vote.

In any case, Díaz compensated for this support for Podemos by claiming the vote for Joan Ribó the next day in an act that was also attended by the Podemos candidate, Pilar Lima. In said event, organized by a citizen platform opposed to the expansion of the Port of Valencia, Díaz called “loud and clear” for the vote for Compromís “to guarantee that progressive forces continue to govern Valencia.” Once again, the Galician applied the electoral calculation: in the capital, the candidacy of Podemos does not even reach 3% support – according to the survey of El País – and their votes could reduce Ribó’s options to revalidate his position.

But Díaz’s mathematics did not convince Podemos. Pilar Lima left the act visibly upset and without speaking to the press for not having had the support of the minister. “She can give support to whoever she considers and we from our platforms, from our parties and from the associations, we will continue working,” said the number 2 on her list, Lara Manyes, before this rebuff.

In Podemos, it is also annoying that Díaz has not applied the same game to the Community of Madrid. Aware that his entry into both the consistory and the Madrid Assembly will be decided by a handful of votes, the ‘purples’ expected greater support from the minister for both Roberto Sotomayor and Alejandra Jacinto. Even if that meant going against the interests of Más Madrid, another indisputable ally of Sumar.

Where Díaz has not been shy about ‘getting wet’ has been in Barcelona, ​​free of any conflict of interest. The vice president has turned to Ada Colau’s campaign, has given her friendly gestures in public and even put on the shirt with the ironic slogan “Ada Colau is to blame for everything” that promotes the candidacy of the commons. “Barcelona has to be born many times and for that we need Ada to continue being mayor,” the vice president claimed at one of those rallies.

Faced with the numerous photos with Colau, the absolute absence of images with the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, stands out. The two ministers have not crossed their agendas to hold a rally together. Nor with the head of Equality, Irene Montero. From the environment of the vice president they remember that her agenda was decided by the different territories and not by Sumar or Díaz.

Although the slogan in Podemos has been to avoid any type of confrontation with Sumar during the campaign, which has helped to reduce the inflammation that arose after the failure of their meetings to forge an electoral alliance, the ‘purples’ have taken advantage of the scandal of the alleged votes bought in Melilla to keep the confrontation alive.

“It is very serious and I am concerned that some progressive parties have thought that these are acceptable partners,” Belarra said on Wednesday, referring to the support that the Coalition for Melilla – a party investigated for this alleged electoral fraud – offered Sumar for the general elections. A dart that represents the prelude to the final battle that awaits the left after the municipal and regional elections and on which the future of Yolanda Díaz will depend.