Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid, Equo and Podemos are open to negotiating a joint electoral list in one of the leading left-wing municipalities of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Rivas-Vaciamadrid (90,000 inhabitants). The possibility of using the Sumar platform to build an example of the Madrid-scale progressive unity envisaged by the second vice president of the central government, Yolanda Díaz, was confirmed to EL PAÍS by four sources familiar with the approach, one for each party involved. However, three of these interlocutors warn that the project is not yet complete, stress that the merger process is delicate and emphasize that the operation cannot be taken for granted. With local elections scheduled for May 28, the parties involved estimate that the process could have been completed by late February or early March if all parties had completed their respective primaries and been able to negotiate a joint list.
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“Here in Rivas there is no noise and no anger on the left, and there is also a personal harmony between the politicians involved,” said a source familiar with the operation, who is operating in the utmost secrecy. “We are in line with what Yolanda Díaz defends,” adds this interlocutor, referring to the government vice-president who, for months, has been embroiled in “a process of listening” to articulate an electoral option for the generals who want the electorate can tighten on the left side of the PSOE. “Therefore, IU, Más Madrid and Equo are ready to relaunch the electoral agreement they already signed for the 2019 elections and join this pact with Podemos.”
Many things have changed in the four years since this municipal. In 2019, Íñigo Errejón broke with Podemos and founded Más Madrid together with Manuela Carmena. This was seen as a betrayal in the Purple Party. Impossible to agree with what has been seen as a split that has also recruited dozens of positions and familiar faces from the party promoted by Pablo Iglesias. This old wound is now forcing those involved to proceed with the utmost diligence in the project to reach a common list, for fear that at any moment the stitches left by the passage of time will burst, making an agreement impossible.
Pedro del Cura, former mayor of Rivas.PACO MARISCAL (Europa Press)
“We will not make any problems so that there is a common list,” says a striped leader at Podemos. “Although nothing is closed yet, we will try because all organizations see it positively,” he continues, specifying that Rivas could be the first of several cities where similar talks are being held. And on the multiplier effect of uniting the entire left to the left of the PSOE, he concludes: “It is clear that we will not endanger the IU government in Rivas.”
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The national directorates of all parties involved in the process will be informed immediately, according to another source involved in the talks, which emphasizes the key role played by former mayor Pedro del Cura, who is very close to Vice President Díaz, as manager of the possible settlement. “No agreement has been reached yet, it’s a careful ant job,” specifies this source.
“Rivas is one of those places with a quirk that allows for an agreement because there is a natural alliance that doesn’t depend on the Sumar project,” agrees another politician familiar with the situation in Madrid’s municipality. “These communal identities don’t need to be extrapolated to other constituencies where the same logic doesn’t apply,” he adds. “But figures like former mayor Pedro del Cura or current mayor Aída Castillejo make it easier because they make the rest feel that everything belongs to everyone and not that they are from a party that agrees with others.”
“We have not spoken to Podemos, but we are not closed to their inclusion,” says another stakeholder in a possible agreement in a key community for progressive formations in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
Because Rivas is one of the strongholds of the left in the region: the municipality has been administered by the PSOE and IU without interruption since 1987. Currently, IU rules with a team that includes PSOE, Podemos, Equo and More Madrid. All those involved believe that these foundations should enable the development of a joint project for the local elections on May 28th. Ultimately, it is about converting the government alliance articulated throughout the legislature into a single ballot. A logic that would give the city’s current mayor, Aída Castillejo (IU), options for the consensus candidacy, although nothing has yet been decided as the weight of each force on the lists has not even been negotiated.
In parallel, the Sumar de Díaz is taking steps that affect the Autonomous Community of Madrid. One of the Vice-President’s most important associates, Agustín Moreno, has his sphere of activity here as a deputy from Podemos in the autonomous parliament. The representative of Más Madrid in the assembly, Eduardo Rubiño, who presents himself with Rita Maestre on the list for the capital’s city council in the next elections, also took part in a sectoral act of the ministerial platform (“there is a very good relationship between the mutual aid, but each preserves its autonomy and independence “, they emphasize in Mónica García’s party). And Rivas could be the next regional nod to the project.
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