2023-12-01 07:00:58
Izquierda Unida celebrates this Friday the last federal coordinator with Alberto Garzón as leader of the party. The former Minister of Consumption will formalize his departure with a farewell speech at a meeting in which the formation will debate what the steps should be from now on, both at an organic level and in the relationship with Sumar, which after the investiture will begin to take shape as a political platform. The party leadership asks Yolanda Díaz for a debate “without rushing” and to clarify what type of project she intends to build between now and the coming months and what the relationship of this new subject will be like with the rest of the leftist organizations.
Alberto Garzón leaves the coordination of IU and leaves the front line of politics
The draft of the political report that the IU management has prepared, to which elDiario.es has had access, presents a series of proposals, in line with those that the party has been outlining for months, for the construction of Sumar as a “stable” coalition “, in the form of a broad front, and with “democratic guarantees of collective participation.” In the previous meeting of the federal coordinator, the party already advocated that the coalition led by Díaz be consolidated as a platform that is above the parties and that has “democratic coordination mechanisms.” And he specifically asked that all parties feel “comfortable, represented and involved,” but also that “the Sumar party” be “just another party.”
The leadership now goes a little deeper into how it believes this duality between the party (Movimiento Sumar) and the coalition (Sumar) should develop. Izquierda Unida, as well as other parties in the political space, had already criticized the confusion generated by using a very similar name for two different political elements. In recent weeks, Díaz’s platform has begun to take steps to establish itself as a party with a constituent assembly in the spring of 2024. That process will formally open shortly with the presentation of a promoter group that incorporates figures from different parties, Among those that Podemos will not be, already completely distanced.
The until now IU spokesperson, Sira Rego, recently appointed Minister of Children and Youth, and the party’s spokesperson in Congress, Enrique Santiago, have participated in different meetings lately with the “Sumar executive group” to address the participation of IU in that process. After these meetings, the management asks Sumar to clarify “if the intention is to build a broad space with the participation of people and political organizations that allows for the construction of processes of popular participation or if, on the contrary, the intention is to reproduce classic party schemes with mechanisms that do not favor the participation of people and organizations.”
In search of a broad coalition
“If we want to build a democratic Broad Front with participation, it cannot be done quickly and without debate,” says the party leadership in the report that is expected to be ratified by the federal coordinator this Friday. “The elaboration of the process of the Sumar coalition promoter group must be done based on prior work with the organizations that make up the coalition, just like the rest of the processes that must allow the articulation of popular and participation processes,” he defends.
The party also warns that it will not be “diluted” into another organization. “Izquierda Unida today is an essential part of the political capital of the entire left: whatever the left of the future in our country will be built with us, since our organization will not be diluted in any other, but will be strengthened.” and will contribute said capital to the joint spaces made up of organizations and civil society.”
That is, Izquierda Unida wants Sumar to be a broad coalition, in which all the formations are integrated, but that has stability during the legislature and democratic mechanisms, not a simple alliance that is convened when there are elections. And not a new party that ends up absorbing the rest of its formations into its own structure. And to do this, it proposes some elements to articulate the new broad front.
On the one hand, “coordination spaces between organizations.” “To improve coordination, a broader space (motor group) can be worked on where the territories and organizations are incorporated. The representation of the territories must be a reflection of the existing plurality and the social and political reality,” the draft proposes. And a second leg that includes “spaces for popular participation.”
“To articulate popular participation, participation in party congresses or assemblies is not enough; it is necessary for people to feel involved in the development of the country’s project, of the political proposal. To achieve this, the best thing is to articulate a calm, bottom-up process that allows organizing assemblies in the neighborhoods and in the different towns of our country where proposals and objectives can be debated,” the party maintains.
A new stage after the departure of Garzón
At the coordinator’s meeting this Friday, Garzón will make his departure official with a farewell speech. From now on, the party will have to open a new stage. The management draft proposes the creation of a sort of manager until the new assembly, for which it does not set a date.
The mandate of the current management is valid until 2025, but this body could be brought forward if approved by the federal coordinator. According to the party’s statutes, the Federal Assembly can be convened in an extraordinary manner “when requested by at least 3/5 of the Federal Coordinator or by several federation coordinators who, together, represent more than 50% of the membership of the party. United Left”. The text of the address proposes the creation of a Preparatory Commission for the XIII Assembly jointly with the federations, parties and currents that make up Izquierda Unida and placing the head of the party’s Organization, Ismael González, at its head.
“Although his departure has an important symbolic impact, Izquierda Unida is a responsible, experienced and serious organization, so we will face the renewal process with guarantees and certainties. We have a new opportunity to demonstrate to the entire left that collective interest, regulated by mechanisms of democratic participation, must be a priority for any emancipatory political project,” reflects the management. “The political pace continues to be frenetic, so our organization needs a tune-up to strengthen itself and face present and future challenges in the best possible conditions,” she defends.
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