The words have gone almost unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of recent days surrounding the candidates and inauguration dates. But the leaders of Sumar have failed for days. “The positions with the PSOE are far apart,” the acting second vice-president and leader of the platform, Yolanda Díaz, said last Monday after going to La Zarzuela Palace to consult with the king. The minority partner of the outgoing executive has been urging the PSOE to sit down and negotiate a new government program throughout August. The socialists gave him a long time. The priority for Pedro Sánchez at the moment is to finalize the agreements with the nationalist and pro-independence groups that will allow a relaunch of the coalition of the last four years, rather than dealing with the contents of the new edition of the progressive executive. But Sumar fears that without this prior commitment, the program of a hypothetical new government will emerge amid left-wing politics’ lack of ambition. Mainly because the context has changed and this government would now also depend on parties that have opposed this policy in the past, such as Junts per Catalunya.
On Díaz’s platform, they fear that the PSOE will use the possible entry of junts into the parliamentary support bloc for Sánchez to weaken the left-wing profile of the executive. There is also the possibility that the European consensus will put an end to the expansive policies of recent years. The room to the left of the PSOE does not trust the stance of the Social Democrats, who have pursued austerity in the past and, according to this analysis, may be back in favor of fiscal adjustments.
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Since the 23-year election, Sumar has already sent his government partners two voluminous documents proposing to sign a new deal that will deepen the policies of the last term. Díaz’s group maintains complete discretion over the content of such initiatives, but platform sources regret that given the alleged detail of their documents, the socialists have responded with a number of generalities.
The PSOE insists that the reality of this legislature is different from the previous one. Firstly, because since 2019 more than 200 laws have been passed with some very relevant progress milestones, such as labor reform or the housing law. Some others remained in limbo or failed at the last moment, but the Socialists insist great progress has been made. Second, because the political reality is different, they claim in the PSOE. The numbers are much smaller and as Sánchez’s inauguration progresses, all support will need support from the PNV and the Junts, two formations far from left field. The housing law, for example, came about without their support. With the current figures, it would never have been approved.
Incumbent Prime Minister and Socialist MP Pedro Sánchez (left) and incumbent Minister of Labor and Sumar’s deputy Yolanda Díaz greeted each other at the inaugural session of the Congress on Thursday 17 in Madrid. Juan Carlos Hidalgo (EFE)
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For this reason, the Socialists are trying to persuade their partners to conclude a government agreement with a “realistic” program that can be voted on in Congress. Otherwise, according to the PSOE, it is a declaration of intent without political feasibility, which could also complicate ongoing negotiations with other groups. The PSOE is sure that there will be an agreement with Sumar, but for now the absolute priority is to negotiate the most difficult part, which is the votes of the nationalists and independents to guarantee the 178 seats that Sánchez needs to do that to reach investiture or even 179 if the Canary Coalition came into play. This is where the PSOE negotiators are turning, convinced that the coalition will be re-formed and will also work better than in the previous legislature, because the way of dealing with the problems of Díaz and Sánchez is always more discreet than the thunderous style from We can , it will make things easier. However, in the socialist part of the government, they consider it unrealistic to think of a programmatic agreement like the one of 2019, when the whole progressive agenda still had to be implemented after a long reign of the PP.
This diagnosis is not shared at all by the second vice president’s team, who considers it essential to outline the government program as soon as possible, without waiting for negotiations with the nationalists. No one doubts that the last board’s formula will be repeated if the current partners manage to persuade Junts, the party of Carles Puigdemont – the former Catalan president who was on the run in Belgium – to support the inauguration of Sánchez to support. Díaz announced this to the king, before whom he pledged his vote for the socialist leader and defended that the PSOE-Sumar coalition was “the only possible government”.
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This does not prevent the leaders of the groups united around Díaz from secretly voicing concerns about the PSOE’s stance, without public confrontations with their partners, even sending him some public messages. His spokesman Ernest Urtasun expressed himself most clearly two weeks ago when he accused the Socialists of their “lack of ambition” in an interview with SER. Many interpreted that Urtasun was referring to the negotiations with the Catalan pro-independence movement, but the sources consulted explain that in reality he was alluding to the future government program.
In his speech on the 16th before the Sumar faction, Díaz subtly dropped his message. “There are various political forces that want to return to austerity and cuts in people’s living conditions,” he warned. Among these forces he “naturally” also counted the “political and economic right-wingers, who always believed in the law of the market”. Without elaborating, he then broadened the target audience of his message to “other forces who might think we’ve gone too far in protecting people in recent years,” and took the opportunity to attack the ever-rising interest rates. approved by the European Central Bank (ECB). Then he concluded in a clear tone: “I want to say loud and clear that Sumar will be a guarantee that the best economic policy is the one that protects the citizens, that works for a better life.” The cuts will not return as long as Sumar is part of the government.
Always without direct allusions to the PSOE, Urtasun emphasized in an interview on RNE this Thursday: “We want an ambitious legislature with an ambitious agreement that is capable of further expanding social protection, expanding rights and policies against climate change and as Díaz explained earlier this week, Sumar’s spokesman persisted with the idea that positions on the PSOE are currently “distant”.
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