The difficulty of closing deals in Madrid seems to disappear when Yolanda Díaz arrives in Barcelona. The second vice-president of the government has found great allies in the Catalan capital for her Sumar country project and, after the trial, has approached Catalanism with a social and sensitive discourse with the community. Díaz introduced herself as “Catalonia’s friend” and promised to continue raising the cross-industry minimum wage together with Ada Colau. The mayor is confirmed as one of Díaz’s main allies in Spain. “Nobody has helped Barcelona like they have,” Colau said of the vice-president. Sumar’s meeting comes in a context of unease with Podemos, who is still waiting for Díaz to confirm his candidacy to negotiate and finalize the format of a joint project.
The government’s second vice president has seized on a social policy project and promised to further raise the minimum wage. “We’ll do it again,” he promised in a full mass bath in a sold-out auditorium. Díaz has presented his project and claimed his social achievements in government, especially after the Covid crisis: “They said we were going to bankrupt the country, but we saved 3.6 million jobs and 550,000 companies,” he assured.
Díaz also criticized the PP’s policies, assuring that the President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, “decided” the position of popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo on the Vox anti-abortion proposal. He assured him the day after the request to Feijóo to respond to the announcement made by the Vice President of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo (Vox), on measures to allow women who want an abortion to listen to the fetal heartbeat or 4D have ultrasound.
Díaz’s visit filled the Barcelona Auditorium, which brought together 2,000 people and left thousands more outside the venue, according to Sumar. The great anticipation delayed the start by 50 minutes because Colau and Díaz came out to thank and greet the fans who could not enter. His entrance onto the stage prompted shouts of “Presidenta, Presidenta” aimed at Díaz, while Colau let out a surprised “Wow” as he turned onto the stage and saw the crowd in their seats. “I asked Colau to invite me back so we can address those who have been left out,” Díaz said. It is his third visit to Catalonia in the last four months on his tour to promote Sumar across Spain after being in Sabadell in October and Tarragona on Friday. In this act, he already rejected the project for the Hard Rock leisure macro-complex in the Camp de Tarragona, one of the PSC’s conditions for approving the budget of the Generalitat. “This production model does not belong to us,” he repeated this Saturday.
Stressing his closeness to Colau, who wants to be re-elected in Barcelona’s upcoming May elections, Díaz praised local politics: “Barcelona is a reference in world public politics,” said the leader of Sumar, who welcomed the municipal project of the City and adopted the mayor’s oral health plan as his own: “Unfortunately, there are few of these social policies in the country, but you have started a program that we want to expand.”
The Sumar leader also called for the regularization of migrants: “They have rights and live with us,” she defended, and also that they can vote in the elections. “If not, our democracy will remain small.”
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One of the novelties of Díaz’s speech was his mention of the political situation in Catalonia after the crisis of the procés. “You say that in Catalonia you completed part of your history [en referencia al procés]”, he began. “I don’t know, let time and people decide what to do with the history of our country. You have in me a friend from Catalonia. I want us to speak different languages, respect and recognition; and you will get what you deserve from Sumar,” he assured to the loud applause of those present.
Colau introduced Díaz as an “extraordinary” woman and “tireless” worker, assuring that no one has helped the city with housing like the leader of Sumar. “We finally need a law that regulates rents and forces vulture funds not to be able to expel vulnerable families.”
With a message full of references to her local politics – “Barcelona has built more social housing than Madrid and Catalonia put together” – the mayor of the city welcomed Díaz’s progressive policies. “He has achieved what they thought was impossible: put an end to the PP’s infamous reform and have more permanent contracts than ever before; and a historic increase in the minimum wage.” The leader of Barcelona en Comú has called for unity around Díaz to “achieve a coalition government that will prevent the extreme right from winning”.
Sumar’s meeting takes place in a context of uneasiness among the rest of the formations on the left, who are still waiting for Díaz to confirm his candidacy and finalize the format of his project. Podemos, through the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, asked to speed up the final configuration of the platform for the next general elections. “We should negotiate and close it now,” he pleaded. Another stakeholder, the federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida and Consumer Minister Alberto Garzón, called this Saturday to avoid a public conflict between progressive formations. “This is not the time for leadership of specific parties,” he claimed, speaking before the party’s federal coordinator’s meeting.
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