Compromís' turbulent alliances with the state left: seats and much tension

However, the history of Compromís's national pacts over the last decade has shown how difficult it is to reconcile these latent differences within the coalition with the agreements reached with the national left. In an effort to gain electoral growth and gain some media attention in the general elections, Compromís has routinely sought coalitions with parties with a national presence. These agreements have always strained the party and, while generally achieving decent results in the elections, have proven to be unstable and unsustainable.

This Friday, the permanent Compromís group (a small executive committee with representation from the three parties that make up the coalition) met again to try to pave the way for a possible agreement between those who want to break with Yolanda Díaz and those who want to continue. The advantages and disadvantages of joining the mixed group were discussed, and a discussion arose over whether the Valencian agenda's lack of influence was a matter of the pact with Sumar or the complicated political situation facing the left in Spain.

There was no significant progress, sources present at the meeting confirmed, and they are now focusing their efforts on reaching an agreement at the executive meeting next Monday, where they must finish sorting out the petals without jeopardizing the Compromís project. "It will be a long day," they suggest, as the only clue as to what might happen.

Since 2015, in the five general elections held, Compromís has not repeated the same electoral formula in any of them. It has run twice with Podemos, twice with Izquierda Unida, once alone, once with Más País, and most recently with Sumar. Its best result was in 2015, when it won four seats, while in the two elections in 2019, it won only one. Despite this, there are doubts about when its influence in Madrid was greatest, a circumstance that has increased the debate about the appropriateness of this type of agreement.

It was 2015, and Compromís and Podemos had signed the Botànic Pact with Ximo Puig's PSPV (Socialist Party of Valencia), bringing about a change in the Valencian Community after 20 years of conservative PP governments. In the general elections of December of that year, the two parties formed a coalition (Compromís-Podemos-És el Moment) and obtained 25.28% of the vote with more than 670,000 votes cast. The electoral coalition became the second-largest force in the Valencian Community, surpassed only by the PP, and the Valencianists won four of the nine seats they had won in the three Valencian constituencies; the remaining five went to Podemos. In those elections, Podemos achieved its best-ever result, garnering over 5.2 million votes across Spain.

A government could not be formed, and the general elections were repeated the following year. The combined forces of Compromís and Podemos were joined by Izquierda Unida (under the electoral banner of A la Valenciana), but the result did not improve despite the addition of a third electoral force. The percentage of votes was very similar, and more than 10,000 votes were lost. Compromís retained its four seats, but the impossibility of forming a Valencian parliamentary group definitively distanced them from Podemos.

After the disappointment with the "Morales" party, Compromís opted to run alone in the next elections. In the first of the 2019 elections, it participated with the sole support of Verds-Equo, which gave it 173,000 votes. Only Joan Baldoví revalidated his seat in Congress. At the end of the year, the elections were repeated, and after a vote that generated considerable internal tension, Compromís decided to run alongside Más Madrid in a new ticket. The majority of the coalition preferred the project then led by Íñigo Errejón to the "Morales" party, which was, for example, the choice of Mónica Oltra; it was one of the few times that the then all-powerful Valencian vice president did not get her way in internal matters. The clashes with Pablo Iglesias and his team were still very recent, and Compromís hoped to find a more stable and horizontal relationship with the fledgling Madrid brand.

However, this experiment barely improved on the result from months earlier, and the coalition was left with 173,000 votes and, once again, Baldoví's sole seat in the Congress of Deputies.

After losing the Valencian regional government in May 2023 and faced with Pedro Sánchez's early elections, Compromís reached an agreement with Sumar, a newly formed political movement, and Esquerra Unida. This pact allowed it to double its number of seats—from two to four—and reach 15.35% of the vote. Despite Yolanda Díaz's poor performance in the rest of the country, Compromís insisted on an understanding with Díaz in the following year's European elections, which allowed it to regain its seat.

That's why the electoral assessment of the agreement with Sumar is positive. However, from the outset, there were voices that failed to understand—this also happened when agreements were reached with Iglesias and Errejón—the need to seek understanding with the state's left, especially given that the latter has demonstrated its self-destructive spirit in recent years and the constant battles between the different groups to the left of the PSOE.

Now, following the crisis stemming from the decision of Yolanda Díaz's parliamentary group not to bother Pedro Sánchez in the Congressional DANA committee, and given that the Sumar project has poor future prospects, calls for distancing themselves from these types of alliances, which have proven so complicated, have grown louder. However, this decision is not unanimous; Iniciativa does not want to break away, which forces Compromís to seek a consensus solution that does not jeopardize the Valencian coalition.