Building a Strong Democratic Left in the Spanish State

Abstract

On 8 July 2022, Yolanda Díaz, Second Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Spain and Minister of Labour, announced the launch of a new political project, an electoral platform known as Sumar (Spanish for “to add”), with a clear message: Sumar is neither a political party nor a coalition; it is a “citizen movement” whose goals are to “expand democracy” and “build a country for the coming decade”.

The project was launched in a manner typical of this type of platform: Díaz, herself a long-time member of the Communist Party (PCE), travelled around the Spanish State to begin a “process of listening” to the public, while sectoral working groups led by independents were set up to develop an agenda and ideological framework for an apparatus whose form and direction, we can only guess at today based on Díaz’s political activity to date.

Yet even if the platform’s concrete agenda remains fairly nebulous for the time being, Díaz’s background and the key messages that crop up in her rhetoric reveal much more about her objectives than is immediately apparent.

About the author

Journalist and political scientist, analyst for various media and columnist for Público and Sentir Crític. Currently advisor in the Parliament of Catalonia as discourse officer for En Comú Podem.
 

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