The federal coordinator of United Left (IU), Antonio Maíllo, rejected this Thursday opening negotiations with Podemos outside of Frente Amplio and also proclaimed that his formation will not accept "fragmented" agreements for the regional elections, because it only assumes the framework of a global pact.
He conveyed this in statements to TVE, in relation to the offer launched this very morning by Podemos exclusively to IU to achieve electoral unity agreements in ten autonomous communities, leaving out the constituencies of Madrid and Barcelona, where the scenario of electoral competition with Frente Amplio would be maintained.
"IU will negotiate from Frente Amplio"
Antonio Maíllo has stated that Frente Amplio is the space they have been working on for a long time in a "fraternal" way and with "much political solidity". Therefore, he has ruled that IU "will negotiate from Frente Amplio because it is a serious organization, it is honest with the other interlocutors and it is loyal" to its political allies.
In this context, the IU leader expressed himself "delighted" that Podemos wants to "join" unity coalition agreements and pointed out that now "the ball is in their court", so, in his opinion, the purple formation has to assume that the interlocution is with Frente Amplio as a whole, because IU "negotiates from" that space.
A project with a state dimension
Antonio Maíllo has insisted that "we are one" and that they are very clear about their positions, so, as he has stressed, it is not about "fragmenting negotiations that have never been raised before, one day before the end of a deadline". With that idea, he criticized the purples for making offers "a day and a half" before the legal deadline to register coalitions.
The leader of IU has also stressed that Frente Amplio is a "country project" and, therefore, has a "state dimension", so it will offer diverse alliances "under the same umbrella", that is, the will for union is for "the entire State and in all electoral circumstances".
Podemos' request that leaves out Madrid and Barcelona
Ione Belarra, general secretary of Podemos, had proposed unity agreements to Izquierda Unida (IU) and with territorial parties in most of the autonomous communities, except in Barcelona and Madrid. In this way, she has opened the door to competition with Frente Amplio in both constituencies.
The approach, according to the Podemos leadership, focuses on preserving unity in those places where the left's electoral offer is limited to these two forces, while reserving for other scenarios the possibility of different alliances or, directly, separate candidacies.
