Irene Montero will lead Podemos' candidacy for the European elections after consummating her break with Sumar

Belarra highlights that there is no one better than Montero to relaunch the project and the former minister accepts the challenge

Podemos has announced that it will compete alone in the 2024 European elections and that the former Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, will be the candidate in those elections if the militancy so decides through primaries.

The general secretary of the formation, Ione Belarra, announced this Saturday that she proposed Montero for this responsibility, an assignment to relaunch the party that has accepted the 'number two' if her organization so decides democratically with "intact hopes" to champion a left that "does not remain silent" nor accepts the "crumbs of power" that the two-party system offers.

For Belarra, there is no one better than Montero, an "extraordinary" activist and "honest" woman, to "start up" an "ambitious" and "brave" project on the left that puts social justice, environmentalism and feminism as its banner. "I ask you to start over with our motives intact and strength renewed," she continued.

This was announced by both, during the event organized this Saturday by the party, under the motto 'Now more than ever' and held at the Palacio de la Prensa in Madrid, to relaunch their project after the break with Sumar and the passing of their five deputies in Congress to the Mixed Group.

Podemos had given maximum importance to this event, highlighting that it represented a before and after in its political career, and finally confirmed that it will attend the European elections on its own in an event supported by its militants, who have overflowed the venue's capacity. when almost 1,200 people gathered, both outside and inside the auditorium.

Along with them were among the leaders of the state leadership such as the Secretary of Organization, Lilith Verstrynge, and the co-spokesperson, Javier Sánchez Serna, during an event where the Podemos rank and file applauded Montero and where the song ''was played on several occasions. He wasn't dead, he was partying' as covered by Peret.

In this way, an option that had been gaining momentum within the formation since the clash with Sumar and the subsequent fracture with Díaz's project is confirmed, by opting for one of its most outstanding profiles to undertake its journey again in alone, after going through a difficult time following various resignations within the formation.

And it also represents a symbolic movement with the aim of relaunching Podemos's political project, diminished after the last electoral cycle, with the commitment to the European elections that were already a milestone in the political emergence of the purples almost a decade ago, when they achieved 2014 five deputies led by their former leader Pablo Iglesias.

With this, Podemos, after recovering its political autonomy from Sumar, seeks its relaunch in elections where it is traditionally easier to obtain parliamentary representation, given that depending on participation, a seat can be obtained with 2% of the votes. Therefore, sectors of the party highlight that the announcement six months before the elections aims to provide clarity for the future to its bases and organize the primaries with enough time.

RENEWAL OF AUTONOMOUS ADDRESSES

Furthermore, the general secretary of the purple party has announced, aware of the importance of the territorial implementation of Podemos, one of the fields where the party has shown weakness, that the process will soon be opened to renew the autonomous leaderships that are pending, after resignations .

Currently, the training has managers, after the poor results of the 28M regional elections, managers in communities such as the Valencian Community, Madrid, Asturias, Aragon and the Balearic Islands, after the resignations of the respective regional coordinators and their executives.

With a message of hope, Belarra has harangued her co-religionists that "the best is yet to come" and that, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the formation, she vindicates Podemos's "titanic" effort to break with the two-party system and form a democratic bloc who has governed the country for four years.

MONTERO CALLS FOR A "STRONG" LEFT: "WE DON'T WANT THE CRUMBS"

Meanwhile, Montero has shown herself willing to lead a candidacy, aware that this project must be taken care of, that "it does not leave unpunished" Israel's "genocide" against the Palestinian people, defend oppressed peoples such as the Sahrawis and advocate for regularization of irregular migrants in the face of a "fortress Europe" that the greens and social democracy do not reject, given that no "fence or baton" is going to stop the migration crisis.

"We deserve more, we do not have to accept the setback of rights of PP and Vox, nor the 'it is not possible' of the PSOE," the former Minister of Equality stressed to promise that Podemos was born to "change the rules of the game" and build relations with the progressive bloc, but being "respected."

Likewise, he has warned that in Spain an unprecedented progressive mobilization managed to stop the right in the 23J elections, but he has wondered if it has really been possible to stop them given that they govern the majority of communities and have ample power in the economic and social sphere. judicial.

Consequently, he has boasted of being in a party that advocates for a "strong" left and feminism, which "does not accept to silence its voice" in the face of requests for silence from the PSOE that advocates transforming the country slowly.

He has also pointed out that Europe has a lot at stake in these elections given that the anti-fascist pact that was forged on the continent after World War II can "be buried" by the "extreme right" and the "hypocrisy" and "inaction" of social democracy. .

POLITICAL HERITAGE OF PODEMOS

Meanwhile, Belarra has boasted that Podemos has built a "democratic heritage" with the most notable measures in the previous legislature, when they governed with the PSOE; and with a way of doing politics consisting of saying "all the truths that no one dared to say", such as that sending weapons to Ukraine only serves to escalate the war and denouncing that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza.

Therefore, the leader of Podemos has insisted that her party must continue to be useful to citizens in the next decade, despite denouncing the "very harsh political, media and judicial attacks" to discredit them.

Thus, he stated that they are beginning a "new path" to reinforce a left-wing political project "in the face of power" and that promotes feminism even if it "annoys the friends" of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.

Consequently, he has claimed that the left needs "ideological, ethical and moral clarity", because "cowardice" cannot be allowed to return to politics, but what is necessary is "courage" to stop the extreme right. Therefore, she has stated that the next European elections are essential and that is why she is nominating Montero as a candidate, given that Podemos is not going to refer itself to the "greens" or the social democrats.