Lara Hernández, general coordinator of Movimiento Sumar (MS) since March 2025, announced this Wednesday her resignation from all positions and party membership. It does so 10 days before the third assembly of the formation, which will be held on July 11. The leader, who came to MS as Secretary of Organization at the hands of Vice President Yolanda Díaz, leaves the party after a few turbulent months, with the Executive and an internal investigation into workplace harassment practices that was finally archived on June 28. Those around her have always defended that the procedure was part of a “political operation” to remove her from leadership.
“I want to apologize with my heart in my hand to all the people on the left for the spectacle we have given in recent months. For my part, I say that I have a clear conscience. First, because I am innocent, I have never harassed anyone in my life; and second, because all the hoaxes and insults have been proven false,” he said after announcing that the investigation was promoted by six organic and institutional officials who claimed to have witnessed harassment of several party workers. The file has been archived “due to lack of evidence, because the affected people decided not to take part” and because some of the complainants “have rectified”, he stated.
“In these four months we have had a bad time, my family and I. The smear campaign has been brutal. The breach of confidentiality has meant that I have been publicly condemned without being able to defend myself until now. These months have helped me to have a long reflection and make a difficult decision,” she announced during a press conference at the party’s usual headquarters, but without the logo of the party behind her, and a single official from the Executive accompanying her, Favio Cortese, Secretary of Mobilization and responsible in the Community of Madrid.
Hernández has subsequently confirmed that he will not attend the next assembly. “Today I present my resignation as co-coordinator of all the bodies and I leave my membership in this organization. I came to this party called by whoever was leading the space at that time,” she said in reference to Díaz.
“My departure has nothing to do with fatigue, but with a way of understanding politics. I have decided to return to my job,” said Hernández, who affirms that his “militant commitment is firm.” “I am not taking a step back, but I do not want to take a wrong step either. I am abandoning the Sumar Movement, but not politics. I will work from where I can and from where I am asked to thoroughly build a left-wing and progressive space,” she has delved into the process underway for the general elections, which she herself created these months, with IU, Comuns and Más Madrid. “The day after tomorrow remains to be described. My desire is to help in any way I can,” he noted about his future.
Asked about Díaz’s position in this conflict, an issue that the vice president has avoided, Hernández has limited herself to justifying that the head of Labor decided to take a step back a long time ago. “It has not disappointed me at all. And it is not the time to draw blood on the colleagues who have been able to promote this file,” he added about the critical sector of the Executive.
Hernández, a professor of Philosophy, served as head of Convergences in the United Left of Cayo Lara, a position in which she tried to seek a candidacy with Podemos for the 2014 European elections that ultimately did not go ahead.
After Yolanda Díaz left the coordination in 2024, she was part of the interim leadership of Movimiento Sumar until last year’s assembly, which marked a change in the paradigm of the formation, which went from being the umbrella of the coalition to another party within the group.
The different positions that questioned her work at the head of the party in recent months led by the parliamentary spokesperson, Verónica Barbero, and the Secretary of State for Social Rights, Rosa Martínez (Bustinduy’s number two in the ministry), which will be ratified in the conclave on the 11th. The provisional list will be published this Thursday, with the unknown role of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and some relevant casualties, according to supporters of the already former coordinator.
