Sumar renews leadership to close internal crisis betting on "broad alliances"

MadridMoviment Sumar –the party founded by Yolanda Díaz in 2023– is trying to put a plaster on things after an internal crisis that has caused the leadership to implode. The way to turn the page has been to ratify the only candidacy that has been presented in the third assembly in three years, led by Verónica Martínez Barbero, current spokesperson for the parliamentary group in Congress, and Rosa Martínez, Secretary of State for Social Rights and number 2 to Minister Pablo Bustinduy. In a calm and surprise-free conclave, the list received 95.9% of the support. During the political event that served as the closing, Rosa Martínez championed the commitment to "broad and diverse alliances" and called for "exploring all possibilities" that allow for "building a broad front".

The "broad front" is the name given – for now – to the union of forces between Moviment Sumar, Comuns, Esquerra Unida, and Més Madrid to articulate a coalition for the next general elections. With second-tier representatives from the three parties present at the closing event, Rosa Martínez boasted about this complicity, arguing that in "exceptional times" alliances are "essential". Along these lines, Verónica Martínez Barbero argued that Moviment Sumar has the capacity to act as "glue" to unite different sensitivities with "negotiating capacity" and flexibility. Furthermore, the assembly gave the green light with 98.9% of the votes to the political-organizational report, which opens the door to a "common program" and a "conjunctural alliance" with ERC in the Spanish elections.

The speeches also included constant jabs at the right and the far-right. Rosa Martínez called to "go on the offensive" to "directly confront" the "reactionary project" of the PP and Vox and attacked the "occurrences and absurdities" of the Popular Party in recent months, which she believes only serve to "fill the void of their incompetence" with a "political poverty that is frightening". For her part, Verónica Martínez called on the PSOE for "more courage" amid the "trickle of suspicions" about the socialists: "The best way is to accelerate the legislature. This is not about playing in the sewers, it's about making laws," she proclaimed.

The MEP Estrella Galán, who immediately sent a message to Yolanda Díaz, kicked off the political event: "You've done a great job, but I have to tell you that we'll leave you behind," she said. The second vice-president of the Spanish government listened to her from the front row next to the Minister of Culture and leader of Comuns, Ernest Urtasun, the only minister who is part of the party's new leadership.

There were about 250 attendees in the audience, with a third of the Espai COEM auditorium empty. Far from the mass gathering of 3,000 people that was the presentation of Sumar in April 2023 at the Antonio Magariños Sports Centre. The event came a few days after the then coordinator of the formation, Lara Hernández, stepped aside denouncing a "brutal smear campaign" against her.