Mario Alegria (Columnist)
PODEMOS knew from the start that it wouldn’t have enough votes next month to overtake the Socialists as the second political force in the country.
Talks between Pablo Iglesias and Alberto Garzon of the United Left (IU) had been in progress during the first attempts to form a government.
Iglesias wanted Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez to join in to form a grand leftist coalition but he wasn’t happy about the pre-election pact the Socialists signed with the centrist Ciudadanos.
But Sanchez wasn’t going to break it.
Now Podemos and IU have decided to unite for the June 26 elections. According to some observations, IU stands to get about seven seats in Congress if the votes swing in favour of this new leftist coalition. It wasn’t an easy match.
Marathon meetings were held between Podemos and IU where disputes arose about the slates and who would be at the top.
Some members have complained about Iglesias’ authoritarian style of controlling his party.
At the same time, die hard IU members, including founding national coordinator Cayo Lara, who has been critical of Garzon, warns the IU, which grew out of the former Spanish
Communist Party (PCE), could be swallowed by Podemos and disappear.
Politics does indeed breed strange bedfellows but with so many explosive personalities on the scene it is difficult to say whether we will have a government anytime soon after June 26.
