Antonio Maíllo, the general coordinator of Izquierda Unida, set himself about a year ago the goal of lifting the mood of a “cowarded left.” One year later, he believes that there are signs that show that something has begun to change among the progressive electorate, amidst the mobilizations that paralyzed La Vuelta in favor of Palestine and also with the social movement in the Valencian Community against Carlos Mazón that ended this week with his resignation as president of the Generalitat. Maíllo calls on the rest of the formations in space to take advantage of this momentum and accelerate the process for a unitary candidacy.
In the draft of the political report that the Federal Coordinator will present this Sunday and to which this newspaper has had access, Maíllo points out that “something is changing” in the state of mind of the Spanish left. “There is no doubt that the massive mobilizations for Palestine against the genocide perpetrated by Israel, the solidarity with the flotilla to Gaza and the subsequent reception of its Spanish members have meant an awakening in the social left of our country,” he reasons.
Not only that, it also appeals to the mobilizations that have occurred in the Valencian Community against the management of the Mazón Government during the DANA, as the judicial investigations have progressed and more details have become known about the president's steps during those critical moments. Meanwhile, in Andalusia, the breast cancer screening crisis, Maíllo believes, “has made it possible to put the conscious deterioration” of Andalusian public health at the center of the debate.
In Andalusia, Izquierda Unida is immersed in the construction of the new Por Andalucía alliance, which also includes the Andalusian People's Initiative and Movimiento Sumar, Yolanda Díaz's party. Maíllo insists in the draft of his political report on the need to build “broad alliances” that also include other formations such as Podemos, which precisely this week called on IU to break with Sumar to form coalitions with them in the rest of the territories.
He did so after reaching an agreement with IU to reissue the coalition in Extremadura due to the early elections. United for Extremadura will be feasible again due to the absence of Yolanda Díaz's people in a territory where there has also already been an alliance for several years led by Podemos. Maíllo celebrates that the agreement reached in that territory is “substantially better than the previous one” and defends that his organization has gone from retaining 33% to 45% of the “representative percentages of the coalition” and a better representation of “women deputies and workers.” But for IU, the path of Extremadura must be repeated in other territories such as Andalusia and Castilla y León, where there will also be elections next year, in the sense of building candidacies that include everyone.
“We offer certainties: wherever Izquierda Unida is, it will bet on the widest possible spaces to offer solid political projects that provide human security to those who need social protection policies, public services and the expansion of rights through housing policies at the service of young people and families who need to access this human right,” Maíllo writes in response to the order that Podemos sent him this week.
However, in his political report he conveys veiled criticism of Belarra's party for its strategy of opposition to the Government and recalls what happened with the public rejection they showed of the arms embargo decree against Israel, but which they ended up supporting at the last minute. “The short-range games of some political formations threatening its approval were just that: frivolous games of bad politics, which were not ultimately reflected. Some lesson can be drawn: when there is popular mobilization, it transcends short-range games in favor of an imperious response to their desires,” he says.
Maíllo, in any case, keeps his hand extended and establishes the same conditions for a future candidacy for the general elections, a broad front with primaries and the commitment to once again form a coalition government. “Instruments that incorporate as many people as possible individually, but who are co-participants in the most important decisions that are taken: political project that justifies unity in the next cycle, programmatic agreements of obligatory commitment and primaries as a method of broad and collective participation in the election of the referents who carry it out,” he explains.
And with the idea that this process has to begin to be built as soon as possible, without further delay and without waiting for those who have already put on the table that they do not want to be there. “It is time to accelerate this process and there are better conditions for it. There is no time to waste,” he calls.
“There has been a click in public opinion and a change in the mood of the left that must be strengthened with our priority work in these territories and with the help of the entire organization in achieving electoral successes in both calls. We must talk about the real problems and offer solutions,” he defends.
He does not rule out running for primaries
This Thursday, Maíllo was on Canal Sur and asked about this process of building a candidacy, he assured that IU's position is that the coalition and its candidates be defined by primaries, something that his organization has already established as an essential criterion. “Yolanda Díaz will have to decide if she runs and secondly there will be primaries,” he said when asked about a possible candidacy of the second vice president of the Government, who has not yet defined whether she will run again as leader of Sumar.
Also asked about his own candidacy, Maíllo assured that it is not among his intentions although he did not rule out the possibility. “I have not gone to the responsibility of the Federal Coordinator for this, but in politics you never know,” he stated. “You discover that sometimes you find what you don't aspire to, we should never rule out any scenario, I have no intention of running in a federal primary, but you never know what can happen,” he added.