IU Madrid will renew its leadership in November. The organization has already launched the regional assembly and the first pieces have begun to move. The current coordinator, Álvaro Aguilera, has stepped aside and the management has proposed the former councilor of Parla Carolina Cordero to follow in his footsteps. Although his team promoted a process to attempt a unitary list that would unite all sensitivities, this Sunday several grassroots assemblies and sectors related to the federal leadership of Antonio Maíllo agreed to launch an alternative candidacy that will be headed by Getafe spokesperson Yolanda Hidalgo.
The regional assembly of Izquierda Unida in Madrid will be held on November 15 and 16. This is the second congress held by the organization after its refoundation in 2016, the constituent process that elected Aguilera in 2020 and the first assembly in 2021, in which he was re-elected. The current coordinator, who had already announced at the beginning of his mandate that he would not repeat as head of the organization, leaves the organization without representation in both the Madrid City Council and the Community, after in 2023 the alliance with Podemos did not reach the threshold of 5% of the votes necessary to enter those two chambers.
The Madrid management launched the process in mid-September with the debate of documents. Already in that phase, the sectors that are now promoting Hidalgo's candidacy presented an alternative political proposal to that of the current regional executive, a document with the name 'The UI that we need for the Madrid that we want', in which they point out the “critical” situation in which the federation finds itself after the last elections and are committed to “repositioning Izquierda Unida as that reliable, rooted and hard-working organization that is useful to the working class, also in Madrid”.
Along with the assembly process, Aguilera launched a proposal to the rest of the organization for a unitary candidacy that would unite the different sensitivities, around a political document “as a basis for debate” that, according to what they defend, gathered “80% support in the local assemblies.”
“As the majority we are in favor of a unitary list, we understand that right now it is not necessary for there to be two lists and we believe that there are more than enough points to understand each other,” reasons the current coordinator in statements to this newspaper. “Given the weak situation of the Madrid left and the reactionary rise, it is necessary to fight with a candidacy of solid and real unity. There may be political differences, but going to a new internal battle is an irresponsibility that the working class of our region does not deserve,” he adds in a statement from the management.
Despite this proposal and without giving it up, the management agreed to name Cordero as a candidate to lead the federation.
After several weeks of debate, the assemblies that promoted the alternative document made the decision to also promote an alternative candidacy that will be led by the IU spokesperson in Getafe and the organization's last candidate in that city south of Madrid. Some voices aligned with this proposal consider that despite the unitary proposal, Aguilera has never defended the integration of different sensitivities. The current direction in these years opened files against important IU Madrid assemblies such as those of Alcorcón and Rivas, including the mayor of that town, Aída Castillejo. In these processes, the federal leadership had to mediate first and the Guarantees Committee ended up closing the complaints.
Hidalgo's candidacy has the support of Horizonte Madrid, the current of the organization that already tried in 2021 to unseat Aguilera, with names at that time such as Carlos Sánchez Mato, Sol Sánchez or Marga Ferré. “The alternative project has the support of the main references in Madrid of the municipalist tradition that characterizes Izquierda Unida. For example, it has numerous support from people from the base assemblies of Rivas and Alcorcón, the most important cities in which the Madrid federation has a presence in the local government,” sources from that candidacy transfer. The document received the endorsement of several Rivas councilors such as the mayor herself, Yasmin Manji, Manu Castro or the former mayor of the city Pedro Del Cura.
According to these sources, the impetus for this candidacy was born as an echo of the recent change in the federal leadership of the organization. In May of last year, Antonio Maíllo was elected the new general coordinator, who garnered important support among the assemblies that now support Hidalgo. “Spurred by the integration efforts of the federal leadership, the people who are active in IU Madrid and were referred to in the candidacies of Antonio Maíllo and Sira Rego have joined forces to transfer that federal majority to the Madrid Regional Assembly,” they say.
The members of this candidacy understand that the launch of an alternative candidacy can strengthen the organization, as they believe happened during the federal assembly. “Plurality is a value for the left, we believe that the existence of several lists is common and even positive if it favors debate and synthesis, which is something that has been lacking in recent times,” say representatives of Horizonte Madrid.
The candidacy document criticizes that IU has become “irrelevant” at the regional level and reproaches that internal dynamics, links with social movements and political opposition to the right have been “neglected.” “Without Izquierda Unida, the Community of Madrid will not change. We are a lever of change, necessary, although not sufficient,” they explain. Among the proposals included in the document is the creation of a “democratic and participatory structure” for the IU Madrid City assembly, as well as a Care commission “to bring care to the organization, demonstrating that feminism is not just a discourse but a political practice and an organizational culture”, inspired by the one created at the federal level.
A new alliance policy
The current Madrid leadership has been very critical of the organization's convergence process at the federal level, first with Unidas Podemos and then with Sumar. “The processes of Unidas Podemos first, and later Sumar, have been overcome through facts,” says Cordero's candidacy. “The cupular processes from above have been shown to be successively failed and there is a consensus on the need to respect the autonomy in the political positions of each agent and make visible the organization that has the greatest territorial implantation, Izquierda Unida,” he adds.
Aguilera maintains in statements to this newspaper that it is not so much an opposition to electoral alliances but to the movements that have taken place in recent years to go to “overcoming spaces”, such as the one that was attempted without success with Sumar. “We did not agree with joining Unidas Podemos or Sumar, but we agreed with participating with different options and traditions,” he explains.
Sources from the Madrid leadership believe, with an eye toward the elections that will be held in Madrid in two years, that the work for future alliances will be easier with Más Madrid than with Podemos. “Another thing is that they (Más Madrid) don't want to, but now there are more wickers,” they maintain, although they specify that it is still early for this type of debate. Precisely these days, the regional deputy Emilio Delgado has shown himself open to leading a candidacy for the Community of Madrid at the head of the party led by Mónica García. Organizations are beginning to move in an electoral manner. The management also ensures that the “IU Madrid group is united around the alliance policy agreed upon this spring at the federal level.”
Precisely, the spirit of the alternative document of Hidalgo's candidacy is inspired by the process that IU has initiated at the state level to build a process of dialogue between all the forces that make up the space of the alternative left, once the Sumar route has been exhausted as a project that brings together the rest of the forces.
The alternative candidacy proposes holding “a great meeting of the transformative left” in mid-2026 with the idea of working in a unity “that allows diversity, based on a common program, with democratic methods that allow the expression and management of discrepancy, as well as with a strong anchor in social movements.”