Sumar opens up to a "common program" and a "contingent alliance" with ERC in the Spanish elections

MadridSumar Movement –Yolanda Díaz's party– has set course for its third general assembly in three years to update its roadmap. The conclave, which will be held on July 11, will arrive at a time when the party is immersed in an internal crisis that has erupted after two significant resignations from the executive that have highlighted a fratricidal power struggle. One of the main missions of the extraordinary congress will be to choose the two people who are to lead the party. But the party will also have to approve the political-organizational report. One of the issues the draft refers to is the alliance policy that Sumar must weave, and it directly alludes to "the sovereignist left", which in Catalonia is led by Esquerra Republicana.

"We will not build a common entity with forces that have different ideas of the State from ours, but we can build a common program and a circumstantial alliance," the document states.

This statement of intent comes at a time when Gabriel Rufián, the leader of ERC in Madrid, continues his path – almost alone – advocating for a broad front of the left across the State. It is a proposal that he does not fully define and for which he has offered to lead, but which does not have the approval of the Esquerra leadership, which has repeatedly closed the door to it. Precisely next week, Oriol Junqueras will meet with the parliamentary group in Congress, as reported by ARA, at a time of tension between Rufián and the Republican leadership, but also of discontent within the Madrid parliamentary group with its spokesperson. The Sumar document argues that having different ideas of the State "cannot be a brake" for "building a program that allows us to move forward together" and calls for "mutual recognition" and "enormous generosity" among political actors.

"Join a few pieces with others"

The document, which can still be amended and modified, also addresses the calls for unity that have been repeated for some time, but it wants to distance itself from what has been done so far: "We will achieve nothing from the construction of the umpteenth sum of political pieces and apparatuses. [...] The objective cannot be to refound what exists, because what exists is not enough". The party wants to consolidate itself as an "autonomous political force" and, in parallel, "solidify territorial alliances" and place itself at the service of "larger political projects".

In fact, for months, Moviment Sumar has been articulating with Comuns, Esquerra Unida and Més Madrid acoalition for the next general elections. The draft justifies that it must offer "certainties" after "many years of instability". However, it recognizes that unity, even if it can help to "maximize" electoral results, is not enough: "No one supports a political project just because it brings together pieces with others", it reasons. Between the lines, and without mentioning Podem, the party tries to put a bandage on the wound before it happens in case the purples end up distancing themselves from the candidacy.

Likewise, he makes two demands: that electoral lists be drawn up through "censuses open to citizens" and that there be a "primary system to resolve moments of lack of agreement". He also alleges that this new platform must be compatible with "loose and tactical alliances" that allow "dodging the traps" of the electoral system. An implicit allusion, for example, to Compromís or Chunta Aragonesista. In the case of Comuns, he boasts that their understanding should serve as a "flexible example" for other territories. In fact, Catalonia is one of the few autonomous communities where Moviment Sumar has not deployed an organic structure. The party's spokesperson, precisely, is Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture and also a member of Comuns.

"A factory of disappointment and sad passions"

The draft also criticizes the PSOE: "It cannot be the vector that defines the direction of our country because it is a factory of disappointment and sad passions," it says. It also criticizes Pedro Sánchez's hyper-leadership and considers that the socialists are "incapable" of promoting the democratization of the state and the conquest of rights. Finally, Sumar also defends tooth and nail being part of the council of ministers. It believes that, if they were not there, the Spanish government "would be in pieces," and emphasizes that, despite it being a "tense, conflictive" relationship full of "contradictions," being there is "fundamental to orient policy."