Podemos launched Irene Montero’s candidacy for the general elections this Saturday and forces the rest of the left to take a position. The party’s number two has announced that she is willing to run in the upcoming elections as a leader, and proposes to submit herself to open primaries, that is, in which anyone who wishes can participate, beyond the members of her party. “I want to be your candidate, but not just in any way. I want to be so with open primaries for everyone in which the whole team can be chosen not only by the people of Podemos, but by anyone who wants to participate and to which anyone can present themselves,” she explained at an event held this noon in Madrid. “It is a difficult task, I am not naive, but I believe it is very much worth it: trying to use politics so that people live well and have what they need to live well. Using politics so that people have peace, a home, and work,” she concluded alongside the general secretary, Ione Belarra, and before about 350 supporters in a speech in which she challenged the rules of the current way of life and outlined the axes of her candidacy, focused on wealth redistribution, regulation of housing prices, reduction of working hours, the fight against the climate emergency, and anti-war policy. “There is only one life and only one planet, so politics must focus on the basics,” she reiterated in her speech.
Montero’s move, which takes the lead in the electoral race, comes when the parties of Sumar in the Government (IU, Más Madrid, Comuns, and Movimiento Sumar) have not yet chosen the person who will lead their space for the elections scheduled for next year. Neither has the brand been announced, nor have agreements been finalized with other formations that are already part of the parliamentary group, such as Compromís, Chunta, or Més, which are now focusing their efforts on the regional or local elections in May.
For now, Movimiento Sumar cautiously welcomes the announcement. “We have been building a common space for months and that is the work we will continue to do. The priority is to build as broad a space as possible. It is good news that Podemos understands that we are in that phase, but we are taking it step by step,” sources from the leadership say.
The formula of open primaries was a demand of Podemos in 2023 when negotiating with Sumar, and one of the party’s red lines that prevented the agreement for months. The other formations viewed this option with suspicion because Podemos has a broader base than other parties, mobilized mainly in the digital sphere, although it then lacks real structure in the territories. Finally, the electoral advance forced a quick agreement behind closed doors.
The Podemos event at the start of the last legislative term is the starting gun for the pre-campaign to La Moncloa, in a context of the rise of the far right and the fall of the left, which, separated, according to the latest 40dB. survey for EL PAÍS and Cadena SER, obtain 3.8 points less than in 2023. Ione Belarra’s formation remains at 2.8% voting intention, and Sumar at 5.7%.
Under the title “Peace, home, work,” the rally in Madrid, which also featured trans rights activist Mar Cambrollé and Podemos’ Secretary of Anti-racism, Serigne Mbayé, also served Montero to present herself as an outsider, asserting that “the rules of the system are a robbery of the majority so that a minority accumulates” and calling to change them. For the former Minister of Equality, all the “advances” achieved after 15-M or Podemos’ arrival in government “have not allowed eliminating that process of acceleration of wealth by a few,” which she places “at the origin of all problems.” “There is only one life, only one planet, and it is not crazy to say that we cannot spend one more euro on weapons while we have firefighters protecting our country earning a pittance,” Montero emphasized. “My opinion is that the system is the one that has to change and the rules of the system must stop going against the people. They cannot be business; they have to be life, which is only lived once. I believe good people are more. And that is why I am going to run in the next general elections,” she concluded.
In a previous speech, full of nods to the candidate, Ione Belarra referred to the humanitarian crisis in Ceuta and the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend the voting rights of naturalized citizens under the so-called grandchildren law. “We are at a moment when anti-racism must be militant. This country cannot forget; we must have memory. We are a country of exiles and their grandchildren are being denied the right to vote. How savage fascism is,” she said before giving way to Montero.
