Polls show that in recent years Vox has risen among the preferences of younger voters, a trend that has long worried the left and which the Movimiento Sumar will work to reverse for the remainder of the legislature. The formation of supporters of Vice President Yolanda Díaz will draw up its roadmap and renew internal documents to address the next electoral cycle in a political conference that will probably be held on November 22, two weeks before the start of the electoral campaign in Extremadura. As sources from the party leadership confirm to EL PAÍS, among the priority axes of the strategy are this political reconnection with young people, addressing access to housing, the struggle for time to live (with measures such as time control regulation already being developed by the Ministry of Labor), the battle against the climate emergency and the “democratization” of technology.
In the latest 40dB barometer Vox appears as the favorite party in the 18 to 24 age group. Santiago Abascal’s party finds the highest percentage of voters here compared to other parties. 31% of the youngest opt for the ultra organization against 5% who do so for Sumar, close to the rest of the nationalist parties and ahead of Podemos (1%). Between 25 and 34 years old the percentage of those who choose Vox drops to 23% and is behind the undecided or abstentions. The addition remains at 3%.
“The return of Die Linke in the German general elections or the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the municipal elections in New York reveal that there is a youth willing to fight for progressive changes and transformations”, however, the party analyzes. In recent months, young people have also mobilized in Spain for Palestine or for problems such as the lack of housing. The Sumar Movement proposes to formulate an “intervention proposal” towards this sector of the population in its November conference. “To activate young people on a social, political and electoral level, it is necessary to challenge them with a strategy adapted to their demands, concerns and their role in society, in a context in which they have been deprived of the horizon of a desirable future,” believes the party, which for the moment does not reveal more concrete measures.
Two areas of action
Furthermore, the organization distinguishes two areas of action: institutional and civil society. This would involve exploiting the presence in the coalition government and in Congress to “accelerate public policies”, “enhance” what has been achieved and “open national debates”, but also “adopt a working style based on door-to-door” or “create synergies” with different actors and expressions of mobilized civil society that serve to “build stable alliances”, they explain. “With this Political Conference, the Sumar Movement will refine its machine to face the last stretch of the legislature. We will take advantage of every space of institutional power to move the country forward”, defends the general coordinator of the MS, Lara Hernández.
Always with an eye to the medium and long term, the political conference will also seek to analyse, study and work on its project “for the next decade”, without forgetting two other fundamental challenges: the protection of democratic rights and redistributive policies to fight inequality from the cradle.
The meeting planned in Madrid will be held before the regional elections in Extremadura, where the organization is barely present and will most likely externally support the candidacy made up of Podemos, Izquierda Unida and Alianza Verde. This will also happen in the midst of negotiations for alliances in Castile and León and Andalusia, where Podemos is not present at the moment, but Díaz’s group is expected to be present.
