Far from being reduced, tension within the coalition is increasing. The attempt to find a way out of the internal crisis has not brought the positions closer, and rather seems to have distanced them, at least that is deduced from the first impressions conveyed by different sources. The PSOE wants to convey that things have gone well, but Sumar’s messages are very clear to the contrary and the socialists’ own statement does not report any agreement or even a political horizon for a solution, it is limited to pointing out that there are “more points in common than discrepancies”, the same phrase that the president, Pedro Sánchez, used to try to soften the crisis. The situation is more serious than it might seem, according to Sumar sources. The minority partner demands a radical change to redirect the legislature, with changes of ministers included, and Sánchez’s appearance this Monday made it very clear that he has no intention of doing so. Everything now depends on a meeting within the Government, and no longer between parties, in which an attempt will be made to agree on a roadmap with social and housing milestones to reactivate the legislature.
But the problem is not there, but in the police and judicial horizon of new movements that affect the PSOE. The possibility that the cases will escalate or that the National Court will accuse the PSOE of possible illegal financing, the red line marked by Sumar and other partners, was on the table at the meeting. At the moment the tension seems difficult to redirect, although it is likely that the president himself and the second vice president will try directly, who usually resolve internal crises when they reach this dimension, and who have already spoken in recent days. There are reproaches on both sides, at least in private, although in public the PSOE officially avoids the clash. Sumar complains that the socialists are not moving and even accuses them of “bunkerizing” and in the PSOE they reproach the vice president for having asked that the heads of ministers roll when that would imply directly linking them to a corruption in which others who are already outside this party because they have been expelled or have resigned, such as Leire Díez, are the protagonists.
In the letter sent after a meeting of more than an hour and a half in Congress, the Sumar parties with a presence in the Executive (Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid, Comunes and Movimiento Sumar) trust that “within the framework of the next meeting of the Monitoring Commission of the Government Pact”, a body in which there are ministers, a “new impulse for the legislature” will be achieved. But there is no specific date for the appointment nor does the PSOE make reference to it in its text. Sumar demands, among other measures, the extension of the suspension of evictions that expires on December 31 and of rental contracts that expire in the coming months, in addition to the creation of the universal child-rearing benefit.
“We are aware that this Government is facing a judicial, economic and political elite that has been trying for years to stop change in our country by all means at its disposal, but that cannot become an excuse to bunker itself in Ferraz and La Moncloa and not respond to a citizenry that demands explanations and transformations,” Sumar censures. The group calls the PSOE’s attitude “immobilist” and believes that “it only favors progressive discouragement, reinforces anti-politics and feeds PP and Vox and their extreme right-wing policies.” “For this reason, beyond the cordiality and good words, the meeting held today has not led to any significant progress,” the statement summarizes.
“The PSOE has the opportunity to relaunch the legislature on all fronts, but to this day it continues without even providing an alternative proposal to the one we have presented,” says Sumar, who believes that this attitude of “blocking the legislature would put the investiture agreement at risk.”
For their part, the PSOE assures that the meeting has been “positive.” The Secretary of Organization, Rebeca Torró, has expressed that the groups gathered share more common points than disagreements: “We have to continue improving people’s lives and, on that common path, dialogue is and will be the best tool to advance agreements that benefit the social majority of this country.” According to the PSOE, Torró has explained in detail the measures adopted by the socialists against cases of corruption and harassment, which were the two questions raised to request this meeting: “The position of the PSOE in the face of any indication of corruption is clear and firm: Zero tolerance. We always act forcefully and immediately in the face of any conduct that goes against the values and principles that these acronyms represent. We have demonstrated it and we will continue to do so,” they say in their statement.
The meeting takes place just a week after . The vice president’s gesture, following the succession of corruption investigations and harassment complaints affecting senior socialist officials, went down very badly in La Moncloa and was rejected by the president three days later. This week, several members of the Cabinet have responded with sarcasm and contempt to Sumar’s claims, also downgrading the importance of this Friday’s meeting, which IU asked to be held “at the highest level” and to which only organic officials from the parties have finally attended. On behalf of the PSOE, its Secretary of Organization, Rebeca Torró, and the deputy, Borja Cabezón. Also the person in charge of Commons Organization, Lidia Muñoz; and from IU, Eva García Sempere. For Movimiento Sumar, its general coordinator, Lara Hernández, participated; and representing Más Madrid, the deputy spokesperson at the capital’s City Council, Eduardo Rubiño.
Sánchez tried this Thursday to point out that he had not felt Díaz’s request was disloyal and to confirm that he had met her. The minority partner of the coalition refers to this meeting in his note: “In recent days and in the meeting that Yolanda Díaz had with Pedro Sánchez, we have been conveying the need for regeneration measures in matters of corruption and harassment, explanations to citizens, a social impulse from the Government and changes and reformulation” of the Executive “to strongly develop the second part of the legislature,” they insist.
The last time that the parties of Sumar and the PSOE held a public meeting was last July, after the entry into prison of the former secretary of the Organization Santos Cerdán for his alleged involvement in the Koldo case.
