Alice Lopez |
Madrid (EFE).- The second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, debuts as a candidate for Moncloa at the head of Sumar, a complex coalition of fifteen parties that has been difficult to put together due to the tug of war of Podemos and with which she hopes to unite the vote of “the alternative left” to govern with Pedro Sánchez.
A full-time Galician and specifically from A Coruña in the municipality of Fene -where she was born on May 6, 1971-, the second vice-president of the Government and Minister of Labor insisted just a year ago on turning around the project that the purples led then before the inexorable decline that was consuming them.
He undertook the so-called “listening process” to test his possibilities, which culminated on April 2 at the Magariños sports center when he made public his candidacy for the generals.
It was clear to him that Podemos was not going to set the pace for him and least of all Pablo Iglesias, even if he named him his successor without his permission, something that he admits to have bothered him a lot and that he accepted out of responsibility.
That was when the former secretary general of Podemos left the Sánchez government in July 2021 and she rose from third to second vice president.
With a degree in Law and three master’s degrees (in Human Resources, Labor Relations and Urban Planning), Yolanda Díaz began her political career in 2003 as a councilor for IU in Ferrol, where she remained until 2011 before making the leap to regional politics and being elected. Deputy in the Galician Parliament in 2012 within the Alternativa Galega de Esquerdas coalition, led by the historic nationalist Xosé Manuel Beiras.
Friendship with Pablo Iglesias bruised by political vicissitudes
Coincidence of fate, Pablo Iglesias worked as an adviser to that campaign in which the leader of Sumar began to stand out. There they forged a friendship that, like so many, has later been bruised by political ups and downs.
It happened years before the former secretary general of the purples became her godfather at the national level and fought for her to enter the Sánchez government because she did not share the idea that United We Can be integrated into the Executive that took office in January of 2020.
In that first coalition government in the history of democracy, friction began between Iglesias and Díaz due to their very different ways of dealing with differences with their socialist partners.
Then Sumar, a personal project in which he did not want acronyms but civil society to be the protagonist, stood definitively between the two until they ended up totally distanced.
Clashes with Podemos
The same thing has happened to Díaz with Podemos, with clashes that have not stopped since the minister dropped her electoral aspirations without counting the purple ones and that culminated in the veto of the Equality Minister, Irene Montero, from the lists.
Yolanda Díaz has not allowed herself to be protected. The mood of the Minister of Labor, who proclaims herself a defender of the agreement and dialogue with discretion and averse to noise, has fitted little with the pressure strategies undertaken by Podemos in each clash within the coalition government. She was seen with the war in Ukraine but, above all, with the law of only yes is yes, where she was openly criticized for putting herself in profile.
At the head of the Ministry, Díaz believes that he has practically fulfilled his duties once he has carried out the labor reform, to which he attributes the good behavior of the employment data, three increases in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, having launched the ERTE during the pandemic, the ‘rider’ law, the teleworking law and having reached 17 agreements with social agents.
Maintains membership in the Communist Party
A deputy in Congress since the December 2015 elections, Díaz maintains her membership in the Communist Party of Spain after leaving the United Left due to disagreements with Alberto Garzón in 2019, although she maintains that her policies are social democratic.
Without reaching approval, the second vice president has been the most valued leader in the CIS barometer for months and marking a “presidential” and “electoral ticket” profile with Pedro Sánchez, which he evidenced in the debate on Vox’s motion of no confidence, of last March, giving the reply to Ramón Tamames, another communist in his distant past.
Of her most personal moments, the vice president keeps “with great affection” the memory of the day when Santiago Carrillo kissed her hand when she was barely four years old since, as the daughter of the veteran CCOO union member Suso Díaz, they used to “at home” parade communist comrades” from the world of politics and culture who were active in hiding.
Married to Juan Andrés Meizoso, a technical cartoonist by profession, they have a daughter, Carmela, and she often shares the moments she enjoys in his company on social networks.