Pedro Sánchez to appoint Yolanda Díaz, Minister of Labor and member of Podemos, as Spain’s second vice-president

The Minister of Labor, Yolanda Diaz, assured on Monday that she would assume the second vice-presidency of the Spanish government, after Pablo Iglesias decided to leave the executive of the coalition, and affirmed that it would be “an honor” for her to continue working with President Pedro Sánchez.

Through a message posted on his personal Twitter account, Díaz pointed out that Over the past year, it has devoted all its “efforts” to “the protection of employment and workers”.

After Iglesias left, Sánchez had argued that he would not change the agreement with which he has governed for just over a year. Likewise, Socialist Party sources confirmed to El País newspaper that Díaz would be the second vice-president as Iglesias was until now.

Sánchez, who met his French counterpart, Emmanunel Macron, in Montauban on Monday, said the current transport minister “is doing an excellent job”, and stressed: “He has my full support”.

To dispel doubts, the president said that the post left vacant by Iglesias will be that of a representative of Podemos: “There is a second vice-presidency which corresponds to United Podemos. I am a person who respects coalition agreements (…) There will be no problem with that, there will be no misunderstandings, there will be continuity ”.

Iglesias, second vice-president of the government and leader of the left-wing Podemos party, announced on Monday by surprise that he was leaving the executive branch of the coalition with the Socialist Party. stand for the next elections in the Madrid region.

Pedro Sánchez, who was in France when his government partner made the announcement, guaranteed the “continuity” of the agreement with Podemos regardless of Iglesias leaving.

The march of Iglesias, until now also Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, It will not be effective until April 20, when the campaign for the May 4 elections begins in Madrid, one of the regions with the most weight in Spanish politics and economy and governed by the Conservative Popular Party (PP).

The Podemos leader communicated his decision in a video on social media, in which he told Sánchez that Yolanda Díaz is expected to take on the second vice-presidency “which matches United We Can” and that another colleague from his party , Ione Belarra, takes over as Minister of Social Rights.

Iglesias argued he would ask Más Madrid, a split from Podemos, a single candidacy to prevent “the extreme right” represented by Vox from consummating an “assault on Madrid” with a pact with the conservatives of the People’s Party, who have governed the region since 1995.

To this end, the leader of Podemos called for the unity of the left bloc and offered More from Madrid to form a “single” candidate for the elections.

“I thought about it a lot (…) I decided that if those registered so wish, I would run for the primary to be a candidate for the Community of Madrid elections. An activist must be where he is most useful, rest assured that I will put all my experience, all my heart and the strength of my organization to build a strong and broad left-wing candidacy.Said Iglesias.

“The enormous danger and the enormous opportunity that we have before us demand that we have the responsibility, the humility and the goodwill to go all together in a candidacy for unity.“He explained to stress that he is” aware “of the” scars “that exist with the party he leads at the national level. Íñigo Errejón.

Although Podemos activists will have to ratify their candidacy, no surprises are expected for their leader, who has led the party since its founding in 2014, to be their candidate in the Madrid elections, put forward after the region’s president, the Conservative Isabel Díaz Ayuso dissolved the regional parliament last week over the possibility that she was the victim of a censure motion from her government partners so far, the Liberals of Ciudadanos.

With information from EFE

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