Yes, on the left it's also about acronyms and people

BarcelonaBefore launching Sumar in 2023, Yolanda Díaz repeatedly emphasized that the project she wanted to lead was not about party labels or personalities, but rather a citizens' platform where political parties would play a secondary role to avoid getting lost in the partisan battles that have often characterized the left. In fact, the current Second Vice President of the Spanish government and Minister of Labor undertook a nationwide tour—what she called a "listening process"—to present and promote her project to the public. Nothing went as promised: from the outset, Sumar became a platform centered around Yolanda Díaz, and the conflict with Podemos dominated the negotiations to form what ultimately became a traditional electoral coalition. Now, many of the key figures from Sumar three years ago have set out to revive a joint project—under the provisional title ofOne step forward—and not repeat the mistakes of three years ago. Is it possible?

The goal, explain the promoters, is to try to consolidate a unified alternative to the left of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). To first establish the ideological foundations of the project and then talk about leadership. The project doesn't have a visible face, but much of the attention has been focused on Díaz, who must decide in the coming weeks what role she wants to play in this new project—some sources indicate that she has given herself until Easter to reflect. The Second Vice President did not want to attend Saturday's event, a decision agreed upon with the new platform, according to sources within the group. To justify this, the still-leader of Sumar (Sumar) returned to the words he repeated before 2023: "This isn't about acronyms or names." Díaz asserted that it's all about "changing the mood" of the public so that they become involved in the defense of democracy.

The precedents

However, the real issue always ends up being the acronyms and the names, precisely. It's understandable that the new Sumar wants to focus on the message to try to mobilize the left-wing electorate in the face of the far-right threat. And also to try to escape the trend of hyper-leadership that, in recent years, has characterized the movement: Podemos always revolved around Pablo Iglesias, and Sumar did so with Díaz. And the proof is that now the project inherited from 2023 doesn't have a name that stands out. Only Ada Colau's name appears in the predictions as a potential game-changer.

Consolidating an ideological project slowly, as the promoters of the new platform claim to have been doing, is one of the mistakes they wanted to correct with the new Sumar. But it's no less true that saying that it's "not all about acronyms or names" is, in a way, a fallacy. In fact, this week we've seen that the name also plays a role. Gabriel Rufián filled the Galileo Galilei Hall in Madrid to defend a common front of left-wing and pro-independence parties. Many of those who attended were drawn by the media appeal of the ERC spokesperson in Madrid. This proves that ideologically forging a political project is just as important as choosing its face and, later, giving them prominence.

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