Spain: minister launches left-wing alliance
The popular Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz announced her candidacy to become the country's first female head of government in the general election in December on Sunday. Díaz is running for Sumar, a platform she has launched to fill the "space to the left of the Socialists". She has the support of more than ten leftist parties, but not of the ruling coalition party Podemos which proposed her as minister two years ago.
She could be the country's next leader
La Vanguardia has great confidence in Díaz:
“Right now Díaz's position seems very solid. She emerged strengthened from the debate on the motion of censure; she is one of the most valued ministers, and she has the backing of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. ... Díaz is now waiting for her turn, knowing that the left changes its skin and its leadership on a regular basis. ... The idea that its political space will one day be represented by a new party in Congress is by no means unrealistic. This is what Sumar is striving for. This and, as Díaz announced yesterday, she also wants to govern the country.”
A promising project
El País advises the Labour Minister to show her skill:
“Yolanda Díaz maintained her stateswomanlike tone, avoided rhetorical aggressiveness, defended dialogue and negotiation as essential components of politics and called for the 'reinvention of the welfare state'. ... The candidate seeks the same transversality that Podemos had at the beginning but exchanges its old epic about the people against the caste for an appeal for 'useful politics'. ... However the most difficult equation has yet to be solved. Her future relationship with Podemos will be key. ... Both sides need courage and generosity to strengthen a platform that secured popular support yesterday and is a promising project for a left wing project with potential to bring about change.”
Pure left-wing populism
El Mundo is dismissive:
“It's clear that this could mean instability for Spain's three-party government, and given the challenges facing Spanish society the situation is dramatic. Like Pedro Sánchez, Díaz sees her position in the executive as an electoral springboard, and she made this perfectly clear yesterday. Her goal is to revive a Podemos without Podemos, and in this sense the programme she presented in her long speech is a small compendium of the vices of left-wing populism.”