Podemos has backed away from a direct confrontation with party co-founder Íñigo Errejón, following his decision to campaign in upcoming Madrid regional elections slated for late-May on the ticket of the new Más Madrid electoral platform launched Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena .
Errejón has also resigned his post as a Podemos deputy in Congress, saying he wants to dedicate himself fully to the Más Madrid campaign to unseat the conservative Partido Popular (PP) from the regional government.
On Monday, Podemos spokesperson Irene Montero told reporters that rather than run its own separate list of candidates to compete directly against Más Madrid in the regional balloting, the party will seek to negotiate a broad united-left ticket with what she referred to as Errejón’s “new party” – even though the party co-founder has so far ruled out resigning his rank-and-file membership in Podemos.
Montero’s comments appear to be a compromise position that contrasts with the immediate reaction to Errejón’s joining Más Madrid from Podemos’ national secretary general Pablo Iglesias, who said within hours Errejón’s announcement that Podemos would name a new candidate to replace Errejón at the head of its own regional elections ticket.
That possibility was made difficult at the weekend, however, with the sudden resignation from the party of Podemos Senator and Madrid party leader Ramón Espinar in a move seen by many as designed to prohibit the national party leadership of launching him as the candidate to compete against Errejón.
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