The former athlete Roberto Sotomayor will be the candidate of Podemos to the Madrid City Council

Sotomayor reflects the line marked by Ione Belarra of opening the party to personalities from civil society The UP spokesperson in the Assembly, Carolina Alonso, will accompany him on the lists to the capital The former athlete and three-time European champion in athletics, Roberto Sotomayor, will be the candidate de Podemos to the Madrid City Council and the current alderman of the capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida, will be measured in the municipal elections in May next year. Sources from the purple formation have informed Europa Press that Sotomayor has decided to champion the purple candidacy in the capital in the elections of 2023 and, consequently, he will present himself to the primaries of the formation when they are convened soon, in which he starts as a favorite. In addition, in his jump to the first political line he will be flanked by the current spokeswoman for United We Can in the Assembly of Madrid, Carolina Alonso, who will accompany him on the lists of Podemos to the Consistory of the capital. In this way, Podemos will attend the elections in the city of Madrid, given that in 2015 it sponsored the Now Madrid candidacy led by former mayor Manuela Carmena and in 2019 it did not appear in the elections after the split of Más Madrid, although in the final stretch of the electoral campaign For four years, former Secretary General Pablo Iglesias gave his support to the Madrid en Pie candidacy, led by former mayor Carlos Sánchez Mato. European champion titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter dash and was also twice world runner-up. His retirement occurred in 2016, at the age of 38, in the absolute Spanish championships. On the other hand, the former Madrid athlete has been part of the state Citizen Council of Podemos since last year and was one of the ‘signings’ together with the actress María Botto of the general secretary of the formation, Ione Belarra, for the new stage of the party. Since joining Podemos, he has been very active in supporting mobilizations called by social groups and has especially been significant in initiatives against the proliferation of bookmakers. In this way, Sotomayor is a profile of the total confidence of the state leadership of Podemos and reflects the line marked by Belarra, of opening the party to personalities from civil society. In addition, the aforementioned sources of the purple formation emphasize that in Madrid there are “many possibilities of recovering the City Council for the left” and that “nobody better than Sotomayor to convey the idea that you can win” the Alc aldía.Objective: the voter dissatisfied with Más MadridIn this way, Podemos and Más Madrid will be present in the elections separately. And it is that in the purple rows they emphasize that this is so given that the formation led by Mónica García has slammed the possibility of going together to this electoral appointment, as they have offered. Moreover, some leaders of Podemos in the city of Madrid are convinced that “a large part of the electorate that voted in the previous elections for Más Madrid” can go to the purple formation, understanding that the current municipal spokesperson Rita Maestre “has a profile that is not liked on the left.” In turn, the promotion of Podemos in its candidacy for the capital is reinforced by the figure of Carlina Alonso, who will move to the municipal level in 2023. With this, the role of the deputy spokesperson and state co-spokesperson for Podemos, Alejandra Jacinto, gains strength to command training at the regional level. At the end of August, Podemos created an electoral coordination team for the regional and municipal elections of 2023, with the aim of sponsoring strong and broad candidacies for the cycle that is open re part of 2023 and nurtured by various territorial positions. The formation has stated that its objective is to work on candidacies of unity and broad fronts with other progressive formations that are not in the space of United We Can, although in Madrid everything indicates that it will not be possible. In the last Andalusian elections, Podemos did run alongside IU and Más País, although tensions were generated by the election of the head of the list for those elections (Inmaculada Nieto) and the uneven formal registration of said coalition. In addition, the platform ‘Sumar’ promoted by the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, will not be in the local elections as it is a general project and that looks to the next general elections