The left looks for a leader after the resignation of Yolanda Díaz

The left is burning leadership at breakneck speed. Yolanda Díaz says goodbye to a new candidacy just five years after taking up the baton from Pablo Iglesias. In this long decade that begins with the emergence of Podemos on the political scene, the catwalk of references that have flashed and then gone out is too extensive. The departure of the second vice president forces her political space to reinvent itself once again to find a new reference or a formula that can raise optimism for the next elections.

The second vice president announced this Wednesday that she is resigning from being a candidate in the next elections. He does so after a legislature full of tensions with the different parties of the coalition that he wove for July 23 and which was an essential condition for revalidating the Government with the PSOE. And it does so precisely when the new alliance of these formations for the general elections begins to take its first public steps after months of discreet dialogue.

“I also want to give space and time so that what is being born runs with the force it deserves, and accompany it, take care of it, promote it with all my energy and with the strength that gives me the conviction. And I also want to take care of the progressive coalition government, because caring is the best tool we have to continue gaining rights,” wrote the Minister of Labor in the letter in which she announced the decision, published on her social networks.

In any case, it is not a decision taken on the fly or as a result of the latest movements that agitate the left, such as the act of the 21st or the conversation that Gabriel Rufián has activated for a new formula for the left that can incorporate the pro-independence forces. But a very thoughtful movement, as she herself recognizes, after a long time as a leader, from Galicia to the state government through Congress.

Díaz claims in the text her work at the head of the Ministry of Labor, in which she will continue to focus: the place from which she built her political capital and which led her in 2021 to assume the leadership of Unidas Podemos, at the request of Pablo Iglesias. And the place where he put all his efforts again after his resignation as organic leader of Sumar in June 2024, after the failure of the European elections, the result of an extremely tense negotiation between the coalition parties that left Izquierda Unida without a seat for the first time since its birth.

But the current legislature has worn out all parts of the Government and relations with Junts have made it impossible to carry out important laws. Among them, the star rule that Díaz planned for this legislature. The reduction of the working day died in its first process in Congress last summer due to the opposition of the independence supporters. The minister has, however, achieved important progress, such as new increases in the minimum wage, the expansion of care leave and soon the Intern Statute.

All the leaders and leaders of the left-wing space recognized this Wednesday the work of the vice president in these years: from Mónica García, Minister of Health and leader of Más Madrid, to Antonio Maíllo, the general coordinator of Izquierda Unida, passing through her closest people in the Government and in the party, such as Ernest Urtasun or Lara Hernández. Also from other parties in the parliamentary arc, such as Compromís, or even the Socialist Party. “There is sadness personally, but also political determination. She continues to build this path with us,” sources from Movimiento Sumar, her party, told this newspaper.

All the alternative left formations agreed in highlighting that this is a “personal” decision and applauded what they see as a gesture of “commitment” or “generosity.” But all of them are also much more cautious when it comes to analyzing the next steps of a political space that has to fill the enormous leadership void that, despite her wear and tear, the second vice president leaves behind.

Más Madrid, Izquierda Unida, Comuns and Movimiento Sumar launched an event on February 21 to present the new political project for next year’s general elections. A coalition that is based on the unitary spirit of July 23, with the Sumar organizations in the Government, and that aims to rebuild that coalition for the future, although with a much more horizontal and cohesive operation between these parties when making decisions.

Sources from Movimiento Sumar reinforce this idea and believe that without Yolanda Díaz the act of 21 “would not have existed.” “We have come this far because of your efforts to build a majority that will win the 2023 elections,” they maintain. “Thanks to her, the coalition was put together that on 23J allowed the second progressive coalition government to be revalidated, it has managed to deploy the most far-reaching progressive policies of social transformation in recent years but, yes, Yolanda is not going anywhere, she is going to be rowing and helping as always. Her presence is going to be decisive for things to go well,” they highlight.

“We Comuns want to highlight the figure of Yolanda Díaz. She led the construction of a broad progressive coalition that made it possible to stop the right and revalidate the progressive coalition government. Likewise, she has been and continues to be the best Minister of Labor in the history of democracy,” sources from the Catalan coalition meanwhile report.

First the project, then the leadership

All leaders try to move away from the debate on leadership to focus the conversation on the need to build a strong political project that puts tensions to rest and is capable of incorporating Podemos to avoid the dispersion of the vote in the next elections. “The work remains the same and does not change: building an alliance, structures and building trust. Nobody thinks about the names now. We said it outwardly and it was a real thing,” say sources from Más Madrid.

In conversation with this newspaper, a leader of the space assesses the times that the vice president has chosen to announce her resignation: “Rufián’s agitation benefits Saturday’s event, with a brutal overflow, and the absence of Yolanda who preannounces her decision today.” “Follow the roadmap,” analyzes the deadlines that the parties had given themselves to begin presenting the new coalition.

One of the reflections that arises from this new meeting between the four forces is that the ways in which the alternative left has operated since the emergence of Podemos have not worked in the medium and long term. And that the solution to that is a formula in which the different parties have more prominence and there is greater solidarity both in decision-making and in the referents, beyond the fact that these forces will have to look for a person to lead the future candidacy.

“There will be no difficulty in finding that leadership, everything will be done in its time,” reflects a leader of the coalition, who endorses this plural formula in the ‘meanwhile’, as seen at the event on February 21, with a sign of equal, without a figure above the rest. “Project, program, new additions and completion of the reference, in that order,” summarizes the next steps to follow. Before finding a new reference, the parties have yet to present their project for the country, starting with Andalusia and Catalonia. What remains is the choice of a new name, a programmatic debate, and a call to the rest of the actors. And then the people.

At Movimiento Sumar they also understand that the people who will assume leadership of the space will in any case be “the result of a collective process.” “Movimiento Sumar wants to widen this space as much as possible and the primaries are a way to do it,” they explain about the formulas for the future.

“The roadmap does not have to change and she continues to be the leader of the space in the Government,” they add in Más Madrid about the next steps. “It does not disappear,” they maintain in a force that, like the rest of the ministers, relies a good part of the coalition’s performance on the Government’s task, with more than a year of the legislature ahead.

“We will continue working side by side with Yolanda Díaz and the rest of the ministers, rowing together, from the Government and from the plurinational parliamentary group. We fully share that we must take care of the coalition Government, guaranteeing stability and maximum ambition when it comes to achieving social progress,” sources from the Comuns also maintain along these lines.

“Likewise, we share that we must continue to advance in broad alliances that allow us to consolidate rights and expand them. The event on the 21st was in this direction, and in this direction we will continue working: adding, expanding and building. The Comuns appreciate our commitment when it comes to articulating a new coalition that makes it possible to once again defeat the right and the extreme right,” they add.

Therefore, a new stage begins for the left in the middle of an extremely complicated legislature, but which will begin with political work rather than names, after weeks in which there has been speculation about the figure of Gabriel Rufián as the next leader of the left, something that he has already ruled out. And also after months in which several leaders have already been appointed in the political bullshit, such as the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, who has also ruled himself out. This same Wednesday, Rufián pointed out him as “one of the best heads” on the left.

What remains before an important step such as the election of a new person at the head of that coalition is a “little ant” job, as some sources define it, to continue weaving alliances and building a political project that will have several previous tests. Andalusia, the first, with Antonio Maíllo as a candidate, a territory that he himself has pointed out as key to evaluating the next steps of the state left. But if everything goes according to the established plan, the regional elections will come before the general elections and there are forces like Más Madrid that are already focused on that event to achieve the best possible results.