Irene Montero did not fulfill the power when presenting her first book, she exceeded it. Around two hundred people came to listen to the former Minister of Equality in the first democratic coalition government this Monday afternoon. Everything is full. There were even those left behind, forcing Podemos number two to promise a second act in the capital for later. In “Something We Will Have Done”, Montero says that “despite the high political cost, it is possible and it is good that things happen in Spain, even if the PSOE and the bipartisanship do not want it”. The title, he explained, is due to the former government delegate against gender violence, Vicky Rosell, and is the same as that of the report of the Ministry of Labor of the Ministry of Equality.
The current MEP, who began her speech visibly excited and thanking her chief of staff, Lidia Rubio, assured that “this book is the result of a journey, of very hard years during which we were able to make finer things in politics. and in our lives”, he declared, addressing the former vice-president of the Executive, as well as his partner and father of his three children, Pablo Iglesias. In addition to the former leader of the purple formation, they also wanted to support Montero in the auditorium of “La Casa Encendida” in the capital Ione Belarra (“friend and companion in struggle”); Serra; the former organizing secretary, Pablo Echenique and the deputy Javier Sánchez Serna, among others.
The price of this past decade at the forefront of politics, he admitted, “has been very high.” In this sense, Montero remembers with particular harshness the so-called “Pact of Magdalenas”: the day when the resigned Errejón informed Iglesias, on paternity leave, that he was forming a new party with Manuela Carmena to run for office. municipal elections of May 2019. At that time, he remembers: “We said to ourselves ‘we can’t take it anymore, we’ll stop!’ and we cry a lot. But we moved forward and everything fell apart. The plan was: “we will blow them up in Madrid, then in the general elections.”
Although there was an even more difficult moment, recalled the MEP: the second electoral rehearsal of 2019, which gave birth to the first democratic coalition government of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos. “The pressure on Pablo was brutal, he received dozens of calls asking him to accept a government [del PSOE] better to go alone than to go to elections, but we said: “no”. Because, he defended, “power is not given, power is exercised because otherwise things will not be transformed”.
Since Podemos, he assures, they have always known that the socialists wanted to use them. Until last year, when they chose to “replace the political leadership of an electoral space which, it is estimated, represents between 10 and 12 percent of the votes without Podemos and which did not want to exercise its autonomy policy”. Montero refers to, but does not mention, Sumar. Today, he says, “only the PSOE is in charge and the possibilities for change in Spain have been reduced.” “We have to break it, it’s good for Spain that things are happening even if the PSOE and the two-party system don’t want it.”
Immediately afterwards, he wanted to send a message to Pedro Sánchez’s team: “We want to coordinate with you, not subordinate ourselves.” This is why he asks: “Let us hope that the PSOE takes charge of the remains of the political operations that it promoted to put an end to Podemos and that we can cooperate,” he asks Pedro Sánchez.
Offer from Yolanda Díaz to Belarra and Montero
“It was a humiliation to think that we could be bought with an embassy in Chile”
He leaves Yolanda Díaz for the end, five minutes from the end of time. The message he sent is clear and concise, as the book already reflects: choosing her “was one of the biggest mistakes in the history of Podemos”. They made the decision, he explains, thinking of expanding the space and having more power to transform themselves. Instead, they handed power “to those who did not want to change anything” and to those who defend that the only valid way to have the status of victim of gender-based violence, he said, is to point out: “Your recognition as a victim does not depend on the complaint”, said Montero, clearly referring to the words spoken by the second vice president the day she came out to denounce the Íñigo Errejón scandal within of Sumar.
He only mentioned it at the beginning of his speech, referring to the offer made to him by the second vice president at the beginning of this year: the Spanish embassy in Chile. “It was a humiliation to think we could be bought,” Montero recalls.
