Irene Montero presents her candidacy for the general elections: "Good people are the majority"

BarcelonaWhile the Spanish right and far-right lead all the polls, which comfortably give them the next state executive, the Spanish left confirms its division, immersed in fratricidal struggles, especially between Sumar and Podemos. Thus, Irene Montero has officially announced this Saturday her candidacy for Podemos in the upcoming Spanish elections –which will have to be ratified by the membership in open primaries–. "I believe that good people are the majority and that people willing to contribute something so that things change are the majority and, therefore, I will run in the next general elections," Montero asserted. In her view, "it is a difficult task, but it is worth using politics so that people live well."

This Saturday's event served as the staging of a program that members of Podemos have ironically suggested their detractors would label as "revolutionary and far-left." Against the "food mafia" and "the accumulation of housing," Montero defended "expropriation and price control." In fact, her diagnosis is that "the system is built to make a profit" and that it is "a robbery" in favor of a minority of "super-rich": "We must limit the prices of everything we need to live," she stressed.

And she gave an "anti-racist" speech: "When I hear people saying that migrants are to blame, can't you look up instead of to the side?" she asked, pointing to the political and media right as culprits in creating self-serving narratives. In a moment of self-criticism, she highlighted that "all the advances with the momentum of the 15-M movement have not managed to end the process of wealth accumulation." Now she returns to "the basics," focusing on "peace, housing, and work," which was the slogan that headed the event. Among the proposals are a thirty-hour work week –neither 40 nor 37.5– or a minimum wage of 1,800 euros per month.

Deputy Ione Belarra praised Montero and warned that it would have been "easy to retire in style" because "it is very easy if you sell yourself to those in power." Perhaps she was referring to Minister Yolanda Díaz, her arch-enemy who is proposed as a candidate for the International Labour Organization, who was harshly criticized on multiple occasions this Saturday. In any case, Belarra said that "a fighting mother is needed at the head of the country" like Montero.

Fratricidal war

The "yes we can" resonated strongly on 15-M with the revolt of the indignant during the height of the crisis, but the situation has nothing to do with 2026. Proof of the fratricidal war on the Spanish left was the intervention of the purple party's LGBTI secretary, Mar Cambrollé, before Montero spoke. She referred to Sumar as the "party that lives on publicity stunts", which "allowed a criminal campaign against the law" of the only yes is yes and against Irene Montero, and that "lives on posturing". Afterwards, she still had the opportunity to define the PSOE as a "regime party" that is a continuation of the PP. At the same time, the anti-racism secretary of the purples, Serigne Mbayé, has already warned that "the campaign will be tough" because even though they say they are "a few cats", their "enemies of the right, far-right and the false left" are afraid of them, in his opinion. They believe they are more necessary than ever in the face of the growth of the far-right, although for now the numbers and the division augur a poor prognosis for the elections.

Belarra has also stated that, in the face of "the racist reactionary offensive over Ceuta", they have "lost ground", while Mbayé has defined himself as "more Spanish" than "those with the little bracelet" and the flag. Cambrollé has also called for a kind of LOAPA or harmonization in education throughout Spain to guarantee content on sexuality, gender and LGBTI rights.