Add has not just finished the appointment of a new spokesperson in the Congress replacing the newly accused Íñigo Errejónwho resigned a couple of weeks ago after several episodes of machismo became known, which were later joined by a complaint of sexual assault. The parties that orbit in parliament around Yolanda Diaz —mainly IU, Más Madrid, Catalunya en Comú and Compromís— agree that The new spokesperson must be Congresswoman Verónica Martíneza labor inspector by profession and very close to Díaz. But his appointment, which was scheduled to be announced this Tuesday, was delayed because the parties that make up the Sumar coalition cannot agree on the new internal distribution of power after Errejón’s departure.
The leadership of the parliamentary group – in which there are representatives of all the parties that make it up, including some smaller ones such as Chunta Aragonesista or Més per Mallorca – met this Tuesday for several hours without being able to put the puzzle together. Sources familiar with the content of that meeting explain that, for days, there has been no discussion regarding the election of Martínez as spokesperson. The leadership of Sumar’s new parliamentary structure is not the problem, but The discrepancies occur on the lower floors, where all Díaz’s allied parties want to gain power or, at least, not lose influence in the reconfiguration of space.
One of the issues that is most delaying the achievement of an agreement, explain sources familiar with the content of the negotiations, is IU’s aspiration of get once and for all one of the deputy spokespersons of Sumar’s group in Congress. This battle goes back a long way, because at the end of last year, when the parliamentary groups were formed, Díaz denied the federation one of those positions and gave them to parties with much less weight than IU, such as Compromís or Chunta.
At that time, the vice president’s exclusion from IU also left Podemos, which was still in Sumar’s group, without positions of responsibility. But the decision felt fatal to the formation now led by Antonio Maíllothat in January of last year, when Errejón was chosen as Sumar’s new spokesperson to replace the resigned Marta Lois, She was only compensated with a “substitute” spokesperson position for Enrique Santiago. IU managed to regain the ability to present parliamentary initiatives without prior authorization from Sumar, but nothing more.
For this reason, on this occasion IU has set the red line for an agreement that Santiago be elected once and for all deputy spokesperson for the group. For the federation it is almost a matter of respect, since they consider that Díaz is now a leader without any structure behind her and that it is IU, together with Más Madrid and Catalunya en Comú, who supports her. However, the problem is that Sumar can only appoint three deputy spokespersons.. And those positions are already occupied by Aina Vidal (Catalunya en Comú), Águeda Micó (Compromís) and Jorge Pueyo (Més).
Of those three, Vidal is the only leader whose continuity as deputy spokesperson no one doubts within Sumar’s parliamentary group. But there are many more doubts with Micó and Pueyo. And that is where the conflict of interest occurs, since no one, neither Compromís nor Chunta, wants to lose the media visibility that a deputy spokesperson in Congress provides, not to mention the important economic bonus that it represents and that, at least partially, all deputies donate to their parties.
A comprehensive reorganization
However, IU’s request to occupy a deputy spokesperson is not the only issue that is delaying the agreement to appoint Verónica Martínez as spokesperson. Sumar wants to take advantage of these changes at the top of the parliamentary group to also reorganize both the distribution of spokespersons in the committees in Congress such as the group’s own method of operation, which IU or Más Madrid have labeled as vertical and have demanded to change to have more weight in decision-making. It has even been proposed to draft a small written protocol with basic lines for a more horizontal operation.
To finish closing those fringes, This Wednesday all the parties present in the Sumar coalition will meet. It is expected that the election of Martínez as the new spokesperson will not be delayed beyond that meeting, and if that were the case, the leader would take office for the first time on Thursday, when the Board of Congressional Spokespersons will meet to define the agenda. of next week’s plenary session.