Ione Belarra promises Yolanda Díaz "commitment to unity" but warns her: "Podemos is essential"

The Minister of Social Rights and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has closed this Sunday the Spring Festival that her party has celebrated in Valencia verbalizing the pressure on his government partner, the PSOE, which has been reflected throughout the weekend, in the different discussion tables of the meeting with the militancy. But also claiming the role of the party in the future project of Yolanda Díaz, whom he has not mentioned: “We need the strongest Podemos, leading the broadest candidacies, always backed by primaries. For our part, there will be no lack of commitment to unity, but Podemos is essential ”, she has riveted, given the misgivings of the second vice president about the parties.
Podemos considers that the return of the emeritus places the monarchy in an "absolutely unsustainable situation"
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Belarra has tried to value the role of his party in the Executive, on the last day of a week in which the name of the Listening process of Vice President Yolanda Díaz –'Sumar'–, which precisely tries to leave the parties in the background to focus on building its project from the citizenship. “We are a Podemos that adds up”. This phrase pronounced at the rally by the Organization Secretary, Lilith Verstrynge, was the only mention of that name by the United We Can candidate for the next general election.
“If this government wants to revalidate the confidence of citizens in the next elections, it has to step on the accelerator. We need courageous, progressive policies that concretely improve people's lives as we have done this week”, he assured at the final rally.
"Podemos is the main engine of the most important advances of the coalition government", the party leader wanted to emphasize, who has placed special emphasis on the laws approved by the Ministry of Equality headed by Irene Montero, who was at his side. “Podemos is not only the force that changed Spanish politics forever, that ended bipartisanship and that has led the left in this country to its best results and its highest levels of institutional power since Spain was able to vote again. ”, she added.
His, he said, is "a political force that has led the left to have ministries in a government for the first time since the 1930s." Podemos, he has insisted, "has transformed common sense regarding key issues for Spain." At that point, he has cited "the new feminist laws, the Social Shield, the ERTEs, the increase in the minimum wage, the reversal of all the cuts in Dependency in two years, or the intervention for the first time of the rental market limiting the increases this year to 2%”.
“And also this week a historical cap on gas to lower the electricity bill and apply a harsh cut to the benefits of electricity companies. It was time for a government to put an end to the electricity companies that have been defrauding citizens for decades. Because paying for all energy at the price of the most expensive is like paying for orange juice at the price of French champagne. And that can only be called a scam”, he stressed.
“We make the greatest efforts to comply with the Government”
Belarra, aware of the questioning of the parties by Yolanda Díaz, has insisted: “Podemos, compañeros and compañeras, is the organization that is behind the most important political advances that the coalition government has promoted. We are the ones who are making the greatest efforts to comply with the government agreement and to give stability to the democratic bloc that we have built. That is precisely why we can speak very clearly”. In her opinion, “Podemos is setting the course and working for the Government to reorganize itself in this second half of the legislature. But for the good of our people, I want, I want the government partner to keep up with us. It is time to govern, govern and govern”, he added.
"It is important that we know what they mean when they say that Podemos is dead, it is that they want to kill Podemos," he added, without ever mentioning the Díaz project. “It is important that we tell everyone that there is Podemos for a while” and, “in fact, our main objective is to consolidate ourselves as an alternative government”, he concluded.
Minutes before, the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, claimed "the pride and beauty" of "being a member of Podemos." “Being from Podemos is not just being part of the political organization that came to change the party system and to say that the impossible could become possible if ordinary people ruled. It is a way of doing politics that does not bend, that always walks without forgetting where we come from, so that our lives are easier. It is a way of doing politics that makes the toughest decisions when they need to be made,” she added. “Being from Podemos is a way of doing politics that makes a team”, she added, mentioning partners such as ERC or EH Bildu, but also the PSOE, although without citing Yolanda Díaz.
Montero has especially vindicated the Minister of Social Rights: "We could not have a better general secretary or a better minister", added the head of Equality, who has valued the recent approval of the new Abortion Law by the Council of Ministers and the imminent definitive approval of the 'yes is yes' law next Thursday, in the Congress of Deputies. In addition, she has warned against those who try to "end Podemos", without mentioning Díaz and his reticence about the parties. "Let's build the strongest Podemos to contribute to the process of deepening democracy that this country needs", she concluded.
Belarra, for his part, also dedicated a few words to defending "diplomatic channels" in the face of the war in Ukraine, but, above all, to the trip that the emeritus king has made this weekend to Spain, where he is on vacation after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates in 2020 and without giving explanations about the origin of his fortune and his millionaire tax fraud. Vindicating once again her party, Podemos, the minister has assured that "few in Spain dare to say that it is a shame that the king emeritus returns to Spain to participate in regattas instead of being accountable before justice and before citizens , that his return is a humiliation for our democracy”.
Only Asens vindicates Yolanda Díaz
“But even fewer dare to say that the fundamental problem with our democracy is not the king emeritus or his fraudulent business. The problem is that anyone who holds office enjoys total impunity to do it again as many times as they want. No one can persecute him, no one can judge him”, added Belarra.
In his opinion, "more and more people" realize "that the monarchy is the fundamental lock that is preventing us from making a profound transformation of the State, which prevents the shielding of social rights, recognizing the plurinational, diverse and rich country . More and more people are aware that only a republican horizon is going to bring us the answer to the questions that have been the same for more than 40 years in our country”, he concluded.
From the confederal space, the only participant in the rally was the leader of the 'comuns' and president of the Parliamentary Group of United We Can, Jaume Asens, who has claimed the figure of Pablo Iglesias in the configuration of the coalition government with the PSOE, but also that of Yolanda Díaz. He was the only leader who did.