Joe Duggan (Reporter)
PODEMOS have agreed that they will be counted as one parliamentary group in Congress rather than four.
Pablo Iglesias’s party had been demanding that its regional branches in Valencia, Galicia and Catalonia receive separate designation, and therefore larger subsidies.
Other political parties rejected the demand, but Podemos’s acceptance of the move clears one of the major hurdles between the party and the Socialist PSOE.
Four Valencian MPs from Podemos-affiliated Compromís refused to accept the deal and filed their own separate request.
The anti-austerity party will therefore have a block of 65 MPs in Congress rather than the 69 deputies that were voted in.
With any idea of a grand-coalition deal between the PP and the PSOE looking doomed, Podemos’s move makes a deal with the PSOE more possible.
Major stumbling blocks remain, however, not least Podemos’s demand for a referendum on Catalan independence.
Then all is definitely lost, another turncoat just like in Greece. PSOE is just as corrupt as the PP, sorry Spain, more of the same – soy muy triste.
As Grand Dad said, “Choosing candidates is like going to the Livestock Fair. Sometimes you have to choose between debilitated cows.” Yet, some blemishes are less debilitating than others. I do know that younger Asturian level (CA) deputies are interested in reform, but must deal with the old style PSOE at the federal level (where the big payoffs are).
Nothing has actually transpired yet. This article is pure speculation so far.