The spokesperson for Podemos, Pablo Fernández, confirmed this Monday at the party's central headquarters that the party will present lists throughout the country, except in Catalonia, Canarias and the Valencian Community, where it already joined coalition agreements, and has also rejected party members running as independents in candidacies in Aragon or the Balearic Islands.
Fernández has declared the conversations to build a common candidacy for the alternative left closed and has assured that the party is turning the page after the failure of these negotiations. “Unfortunately, Frente Amplio did not want it that way. It is a closed issue and from now on we are going to focus on campaigning, on conveying our proposals to the citizens,” he stressed at a press conference.
The co-spokesperson for Podemos has resorted to proverbs to summarize the situation and has stated that “water under the bridge does not move a mill,” while admitting that last week a “good image” was not given and has apologized to left-wing people who may have felt “annoyed.”
Aragon and Balearic Islands, blocked agreements
Regarding Aragon and the Balearic Islands, Pablo Fernández explained that, an hour before the official deadline for registering coalitions expired, there was a detailed agreement in both communities, worked on with “diligence,” but which was finally “blocked” by the Frente Amplio leadership.
For this reason, he has ruled out the possibility of Podemos members appearing as independents in these two communities, despite the offer made by Chunta Aragonesista and Ara Més, given that electoral lists must be presented on the 26th.
Fernández specified that this formula is validated in Catalonia, where Podemos holds the sixth and tenth positions on the ERC list, within the framework of a prior collaboration agreement with the republicans. As he detailed, this understanding also includes the participation of the head of the Catalan party's list, Gabriel Rufián, in campaign events alongside Podemos candidate, Irene Montero, an alliance they will debut this Saturday with a joint event in Barcelona.
Criticism of Frente Amplio for pact with PSOE
During his appearance, Pablo Fernández defended that Podemos put “all its will” to reach agreements in many communities, with the exception of Madrid and Catalonia, with the aim of not losing “a single left-wing vote,” but he maintained that it was Frente Amplio who decided to “close ranks” and “pact with the PSOE” joint candidacies for the Senate.
“Everyone chooses their path. We tried that path of reaching an agreement in the territories,” he said, before insisting that people “in the streets and squares are not asking to pact with the PSOE,” but to advance in rights, decent housing, and public and quality education and healthcare.
Asked about the criticism of Frente Amplio for that agreement with the PSOE for the Senate, but nevertheless the joint appearance with the socialists and other forces in Menorca and Ibiza, the purple leader replied that these territories constitute an exception due to their uniqueness and that this pact to share a candidacy comes from previous legislatures. “In the rest of the State, in the rest of the territories, obviously we are not going to pact with the Socialist Party,” he declared.
Podemos asserts itself as an autonomous left
Fernández stressed that Podemos is now entering a pre-campaign in which it faces the upcoming commitments with “all determination” and with the intention of “giving everything” so that citizens perceive that “an autonomous left to the PSOE is essential.”
In this vein, he defended that the Podemos candidacy represents an alternative to “corruption,” to “rearmament,” to the “housing crisis,” to the loss of purchasing power, to the climate change crisis and to the “deterioration of public services,” with a direct criticism of the PSOE's management and with the purpose of marking differences with Frente Amplio, the project of the parties that share a coalition with the socialists.