In the middle of a political storm after the serious accusations of gender-based violence against the one who, until this Thursday, was Sumar’s spokesperson at the Congress of Deputies, Inigo Errejonthe group led by Yolanda Diaz faces a week that promises to be complicated. A new appointment and more responsibilities to be refined are some of the issues that will be discussed during the two meetings scheduled throughout the day on Monday.
The first meeting which will bring together the political parties under the aegis of the Sumar formation –United Left, More Madrid, Commons or Compromises, among others -, founded by Díaz, will take place in the morning. However, it will be early in the afternoon that the parliamentary group meets, where the appointment of a new member will be discussed. The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor will attend this meeting, returning from an official trip to Colombia.
This will be the third time during this legislature that Sumar appoints his main representative in Congress, given that the co-founder of Podemos registered as such in replacement of Marta Lois. The former deputy left her position and her background to become a candidate in the last Galician elections.
Even if we do not yet know who will be the replacement, everything indicates that she will be a replacement. Among those with more options are the current deputy spokesperson, Aina Vidal, who has already been in the pool for the position, or the deputy Verónica Barbero, who, however, announced that she did not want the position. What we know for sure is that the deputy seat will be occupied by the leader of Más Madrid. Alda Récas.
Despite Díaz’s absence during this week’s earthquake, Sumar stressed that it was precisely She who had been speaking with Errejón since Wednesday. Some conversations in which he allegedly asked him for explanations about the complaints spread on social networks and in which he also urged him, after admitting the facts, to resign. Already this Monday, sources from the group explained that “it was not easy to return from Colombia”, since “she is not going to Falcon”.
Likewise, they emphasize that Díaz is very emotionally affected by this matter, while saying that after the meeting she will appear before the media in an appearance in which she says that she will be very hard with Errejón. Furthermore, they say he will insist that he could not have known about this, since he would never have consented to it. Of course, they argue that this will not reduce guilt, since This could have been investigated further.
Is the left weakening?
The controversy has led various sources from the range of outfits Sumar hosts to admit that The situation they are experiencing is extremely difficult.. They even regret that the project, which was facing a rearmament phase during these months due to the poor results of this year’s electoral cycle, is affected.
A concern that the socialist wing of the government minimizes, at least in public. Early this Monday, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, spoke on the RTVE morning show where he dismissed this concern regarding the unity of the Executive, while recognizing “significant agitation” in the “progressive environment”. , because “feminist policies are in our base, in our DNA, in our hard core,” she said.
When asked if he was previously aware of these complaints, the socialist categorically replied: “Not at all.” He even explained that when he learned of Errejón’s resignation through the statement he shared on social networks, he thought it was “fatigue” after the years spent at the first rank of politics. However, when he found out it matched these serious accusations, he was “shocked.”
Also speaking on this subject was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who positively evaluated Sumar’s response: “He acted with very fast and powerful because we must always act.” “An internal investigation has been opened and Sumar will explain to us what happened,” declared the socialist minister, while affirming that “we must always be with the victims.”
A few minutes later and in private, PSOE sources do not deny to LaSexta the damage that this situation will cause to Sumar and the entire government, but they insist that it is time to close ranks and to demand that we reach the end “he who falls falls. “. Furthermore, they emphasize that they hope that this space to their left will be reconsidered in view of the next electoral cycle, even if they must continue to suffer of the rivalry between Sumar and Podemos.
More Madrid also appears
The co-spokespeople of the Más Madrid formation will offer a press conference in front of the media at 12:00 p.m., after Bergerot did not attend the Commission of Spokespersons of the Madrid Assembly and the formation canceled the subsequent press conference. Of course, the call is maintained following the information that emerged last Friday when the party admitted to have had knowledge of touching without consent by Errejón during a festival in Castellón in June 2023.
As a result, Más Madrid Loreto Arenillas was fired last Friday for his intermediation with this victim to prevent him from denouncing the now former politician and will delete his story which he had published on social networks. Arenillas renounced his record, but did not hesitate to accuse the formation of using him as a “scapegoat”. He even highlighted the role of Manuela Bergerot, current spokesperson for the Madrid Assembly, who was then organizational secretary.
Bergerot was precisely one of the members of Más Madrid who appeared before the media this Monday, after being absent from the Commission of Spokespersons this Monday at the Madrid Assembly. He did it with the current Minister of Health, Monique GarciaAnd Rita Maestre. They all assume the “error” of the training having reacted in an “insufficient” manner in the face of Errejón and Arenillas’ “ambiguous explanations” about what happened during this concert.
Remember that Maestre shared this Sunday on his social networks a letter in which he expresses his rejection of Errejón’s actions with whom he had been in a relationship for several years. “I feel deeply deceived, and this deception is devastating,” she said in her harsh letter.
During this weekend, the purging of responsibilities already began in Sumar. This Saturday, Sumar’s spokesperson, Ernest Urtasun, admitted that the situation “broke the trust of many people”while admitting that “internal prevention and detection systems” “failed”. “If we had known of the serious information that was published this week, Íñigo Errejón would have resigned much earlier,” the also Minister of Culture said on Saturday.
Sumar’s assumption of responsibility resulted in continue the internal investigationoffer repair channels and support for victims and complete the implementation of protocols and training for their positions on gender-based violence. There are no new resignations on the table at the moment, although some Sumar MPs do not rule out that further resignations or dismissals may be necessary if new information emerges.
Line in which sources from Sumar spoke this Monday, who told LaSexta that Yolanda Díaz would not seek to evade responsibility for what happened. However, regarding the investigation into touching at the Castellón festival in the summer of 2023, they assure that They trusted the actions they carried out from Más Madridsince Errejón was not Sumar’s spokesperson in these matters.
Likewise, on the same Friday, the general coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, assured that this crisis “opens a channel to the left”, for which he did not hesitate to plead. make a catharsis regarding the organization. Likewise, he also called for changing the way of approaching collective decisions so that they are not “so vertical”, such as the appointment of a new spokesperson for the Lower House.
This management, however, did not convince the opposition, who did not hesitate to criticize it. Reproaches that come both from the Popular Party and from Vox. Both accuse Yolanda Díaz of having concealed the behavior of her former spokespersonwhile the socialist wing of the government supported the actions of the organization which, according to the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, “is doing its homework”.
Where support has been offered to Sumar and Yolanda Díaz, it is the Spanish government that forms a coalition with the PSOE. The President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, defended their colleague in the Council. For Ana Redondo, Sumar “does his homework”.
However, Podemos stressed this Monday morning that Díaz was well informed events reported by one of Errejón’s alleged victims since publication in X reached “three million views”. At that time, the Ministry of Equality was headed by the “morada” Irene Montero. In fact, it should be noted that the formation that Errejón himself co-founded participated in the 23J elections alongside the alliance of left-wing formations that included Díaz’s formation. They did this a few days before the election and after the accusation became known.
