Sumar does not finish off the appointment of a new spokesperson in the Congress in substitution of the recently impeached Íñigo Errejónwho resigned a couple of weeks ago after several episodes of machismo were revealed, which were later joined by an accusation of sexual assault. The parties orbiting in the parliament around Yolanda Díaz -mainly IU, Más Madrid, Catalunya en Comú and Compromís- are in agreement that the new spokesperson should be the deputy Verónica Martínez., a labor inspector by profession and very close to Diaz. But her designation, which was scheduled to be announced this Tuesday, was delayed because the parties that make up the Sumar coalition are unable to agree on the new internal distribution of power after the departure of Errejón.
The direction of the parliamentary group – in which there are representatives of all the parties that compose it, including some of smaller size as Chunta Aragonesista or Més per Mallorca – met this Tuesday for several hours without being able to fit the puzzle. Sources familiar with the content of that meeting explain that, for days, there has been no discussion about the election of Martínez as spokesman. The dome of the new parliamentary structure of Sumar is not the problem, but rather that the discrepancies are in the lower floors, where all parties allied to Diaz want to gain power or, at least, not lose influence in the reconfiguration of the space.
One of the issues that is delaying the achievement of an agreement, explain sources knowledgeable about the content of the negotiations, is the aspiration of IU of to obtain once and for all one of the deputy spokespersons. of the Sumar group in Congress. This battle has been going on for a long time, because at the end of last year, when the parliamentary groups were formed, Díaz denied the federation one of those seats. and gave them to parties with much less weight than IU, such as Compromís or Chunta.
At that time, the vice-president’s exclusion of IU also served to leave Podemos, which was still in the Sumar group, without positions of responsibility. But the decision was fatal to the formation now led by Antonio Maíllo.who in January last year, when Errejón was elected as the new spokesperson for Sumar to replace the resigned Marta Lois, was only compensated with a “substitute” spokesperson position for Enrique Santiago. IU managed to recover the ability to present parliamentary initiatives without prior authorization from Sumar, but nothing more.
Therefore, on this occasion IU has put as a red line for an agreement that Santiago be elected once and for all deputy spokesman of the group. For the federation it is almost a matter of respect, since they consider that Diaz is now a leader without any structure behind and that it is IU, together with Más Madrid and Catalunya en Comú, who sustains her. However, the problem is that by regulation Sumar can only appoint three deputy spokespersons.. And those positions are already occupied by Aina Vidal (Catalunya en Comú), Águeda Micó (Compromís) and Jorge Pueyo (Més).
Of these three, Vidal is the only leader whose continuity as deputy spokesperson no one doubts within the parliamentary group of Sumar. But there are many more doubts with Micó and Pueyo. And that is where the conflict of interest arises, since no one, neither Compromís nor Chunta, wants to lose the media visibility that a deputy spokesmanship in Congress provides, not to mention the important economic bonus that it implies and that, at least partially, all the deputies donate to their parties.
A comprehensive reorganization
However, IU’s request for a deputy spokesperson is not the only issue that is delaying the agreement to appoint Verónica Martínez as spokesperson. Sumar wants to take advantage of these changes in the leadership of the parliamentary group to also reorganize both the distribution of spokespersons in the commissions in Congress. as well as the group’s own method of operation, which IU or Más Madrid have branded as vertical and have demanded to change in order to have more weight in decision-making. It has even been proposed to draft a small written protocol with basic lines for a more horizontal operation.
To finish closing those bangs, all the parties in the Sumar coalition will meet this Wednesday.. It is expected that the election of Martinez as new spokesperson will not be delayed beyond that meeting, and if that were so, the leader would debut in her post on Thursday, when the Board of Spokespersons of Congress will meet to define the agenda for next week’s plenary session.