Podemos continues its decline and remains a residual force with only 0.25% of votes and surpassed even by PACMA
MADRID, 18 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Sumar has failed in the Galician elections held today, its first regional electoral test, by remaining an extra-parliamentary force after obtaining a meager 1.86% of the vote (25,195 ballots) with 91.22% counted, far below even the 3.9% that Galicia en Común achieved in 2020.
For its part, Podemos, which participated on its own after the split with Sumar, continues with its electoral collapse that it has been dragging on since 2019 and is placed in irrelevance in this community by obtaining 0.25% of the vote (3,469 votes), even surpassed by PACMA.
The result is a blow for Sumar, which does not achieve its minimum expectations of winning two seats (in Pontevedra and Coruña) to be key in governability if the PP lost its absolute majority. Therefore, it neither corrects the electoral decomposition that the state alternative left already suffered in 2020 (which then also had a part of nationalism) nor does it benefit from its presence in the national government.
The poor result also tarnishes Díaz’s leadership, who despite being a political reference in Galicia (his native community) and getting involved in Sumar’s campaign, has not been able to correct the concentration of progressive votes in the BNG.
In this way, Sumar loses a lot of support in relation to the general elections, an event in which it obtained a total of 178,691 votes, 11.1% of those obtained in this community, which earned it two seats for the constituencies of Pontevedra and A Coruna. Thus, she has not managed to emulate the electoral support of 23J, to which he insistently appealed during the campaign.
Thus, Sumar has not managed to reverse the collapse of Galicia en Común-EU-Anova (the brand that Podemos sponsored together with Izquierda Unida and Anova, a sovereignist formation that Xosé Manuel Beiras is active in and that in these elections provided support to the BNG) when It was left out of the Galician Parliament by garnering only 3.9% of the vote (51,223 votes), a chamber in which this space became the second political force with the En Marea brand, which broke down due to internal disputes.
And in 2016 and in the midst of the emergence of Podemos (which did not appear in the previous municipal elections), the municipalist tides, which managed to govern — among others — three cities (Santiago, A Coruña and Ferrol) and break into a large part of the territory, the purple formation and that of the United Left of Yolanda Díaz promoted the confluence in which it was established as a party, En Marea, achieving 14 seats and 273,523 votes (19% of the total vote cast then).
In fact, in the 2015 general elections, En Marea achieved the milestone of obtaining six seats in Congress and 25% of the vote cast (410,698 ballots).
In that electoral cycle almost a decade ago, it surpassed the PSOE and absorbed a good part of the BNG electorate, which managed to save its parliamentary group with six deputies, which recovered from 2019 to become the main progressive party with representation in the chamber. Galician (with 19 deputies). And from that year onwards, it lost its municipal power in the 2019 local elections, the prelude to being left out of the regional Parliament the following year.
From the ranks of Sumar they already pointed out that the elections in Galicia came at a complicated time, given that they are in the middle of establishing the project in its organizational phase and without having a consolidated territorial structure.
Sumar had to accelerate and, after establishing itself as a party, it undertook a complicated negotiation with Podemos and IU, which led to a preliminary coalition agreement that was frustrated after the bases of the purple party rejected it.
Apart from that and without a clear reference in Galicia, he had to bet on Marta Lois as a candidate, which led to him leaving Congress and his position as spokesperson in the chamber, where he was one of Díaz’s strongholds in the parliamentary group.
The result in Galicia also tarnishes with this electoral setback the first Sumar assembly, which will be held on March 23, to continue consolidating a broad front with civil society in alliance with progressive parties.
In addition, Sumar must also face the next Basque elections, still undated and where there is also a fracture with Podemos, with polls published that also point to a decline in seats in the space, while Bildu remains strong. Already in 2020 in Euskadi Elkerrakin Podemos suffered a setback by winning six deputies, half of those obtained in its first electoral debut in the regional community.
Therefore, the Galician elections leave one of the challenges for the future of Sumar to face the growth of the sovereignist left. The strategy of emphasizing the differences with the BNG and the PSOE, the discourse based on expanding towards Adding the vote in Coruña and Pontevedra as a key to removing seats from the PP and the landing in the campaign of Díaz (the state leader with the most actions) and the Sumar’s ministers, have not been enough to raise their chances in these elections, weighed down by the push of the BNG to monopolize the useful vote on the left.
Its emergence as the main force on the left of the PSOE in the last general elections, being key to revalidating the coalition Government, for now maintains one of the deficits that Podemos already suffered from since 2019, a better performance at the state level that does not translate in terms of regional elections.
In the case of Podemos, the purple formation that has participated in coalition with Alianza Verde continues with its bad trend in regional elections, after the debacle it suffered in the last regional elections last year, where it became an extra-parliamentary force in Madrid, Community Valenciana and the Canary Islands, in addition to experiencing a strong decline in Aragon, the Balearic Islands and Asturias (with only one deputy in these autonomies).
This electoral event meant the loss of all the regional governments except for Navarra, where its only regional councilor resides.
Now, in these Galician elections, the purples are even surpassed in votes by PACMA, although the party was aware that it was very difficult to obtain representation in Galicia, given the electoral strength of the BNG. However, it shows its territorial weakness by remaining as a residual formation on the left after breaking with Sumar.
Looking ahead to the electoral cycle, the party’s commitment to rearm itself involves above all the European elections, with the former Minister of Equality Irene Montero as a candidate, and they also see themselves in Euskadi with more strength than the project championed by Díaz.
