Is there life beyond Yolanda Díaz and Irene Montero on the left of the PSOE?

MadridYolanda Díaz or Irene Montero. Sumar or Podemos. This seems to be the dilemma for the left of the PSOE ahead of the upcoming Spanish elections. The purple party has already formally announced that The former Minister of Equality will be her candidate and has invited parties that are now part of the Sumar coalition, such as Izquierda Unida, to renounce Díaz and ally with them. The party of the second vice president of the Spanish government has not made this official, but its constitution as such is linked to the objective that Díaz has a structure behind him that allows him to continue leading the space and repeat as head of the list.

The calls for unity that Sumar has made and that We can ignore seem incompatible with uniting both candidates under the same electoral umbrella. Díaz already vetoed Montero in the 2023 elections, and they do not hide the animosity that exists between them and their parties. Faced with this, Esquerra Unida (United Left) emerges, seeking to establish its own profile and break this dichotomy. The party led by Antonio Maíllo, which met this Saturday, is betting in a document that outlines its alliance policy on "putting an end to the times of hyper-leadership" with a call for unity "without vetoes or exclusions."

Maíllo has even raised the possibility of changing the name of Sumar, to avoid confusing the coalition with Díaz's eponymous party, which he accuses of having acted with a lack of internal democracy. He has been repeating for weeks that achieving unity and agreeing on a programmatic agreement depends on whoever the event is. It cannot be imposed by any organization. Izquierda Unida, its leader has announced, would also present its candidate when the time comes. Is there life beyond Díaz and Montero?

The leaders to the left of the PSOE

Izquierda Unida hasn't named any names, but it doesn't have a face as familiar as the second vice president or the Podemos MEP. The Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, is its quota in the Council of Ministers, but despite her position, she remains unknown to 82.4% of Spaniards, according to the latest poll by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS). Díaz, on the other hand, is recognized by 96.3%. To what extent is it relevant for a candidacy to be led by a well-known face? Although it has "significant weight" in electoral behavior, in national elections it has "less" than in regional or local elections, points out Miguel Martín, an expert in demoscopy and market research at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), who emphasizes the importance of two other dimensions: acronyms and ideology, expressed through major messages.

In a conversation with ARA, Aleix Martí, professor of political communication at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), explains that a good candidate "allows us to expand the electoral space," but that "apart from strong leadership, you must have a broad, convinced organization that generates a network." Internal conflicts reveal that this second element is lacking in this political space, and the expert diagnoses a branding problem in both Sumar and Podemos. "They don't generate trust; they're very worn out," says Martí, who also sees the image of Díaz and Montero affected. However, he believes that the impact of changing the visible face or the name would be "reduced" if the dynamics to the left of the PSOE "are the same."

Along similar lines, the UCM professor sees a problem of "lack of credibility" in these projects because they are overshadowed by the direction set by the PSOE when they are part of the Spanish government, as is being seen with the rearmament debateMartí agrees that the "unmet expectations" of this political space since the 15-M movement are one of the factors complicating its prospects. Without coordination, "an ambitious space cannot be proposed," maintains the UPF professor, who believes that "new leadership is needed" to overcome the disputes of the last ten years. The UCM professor sees leaving the government and opposing the PSOE as the only way to overcome this erosion and believes that running separately would mean "totally diluting" itself in favor of the Socialists.