Movimiento Sumar has entered one of the most turbulent periods in its history. A wave of high-profile departures has exposed divisions over its leadership and future direction. Lara Hernández García resigned as coordinator general on 1 July 2026 and left the party, ending a tenure that began in March 2025. Appointed secretary of Organization in 2024 with Yolanda Díaz’s backing, Hernández became sole coordinator after Carlos Martín resigned in August 2025. She described the pressure around the internal dispute as “a brutal smear campaign” and said, “I have a clear conscience; I am innocent.”
The conflict intensified after Laura Moreno resigned as secretary of Organization and accused Hernández of workplace mistreatment. Movimiento Sumar opened an internal inquiry after receiving up to six complaints. The complaints were later withdrawn, and the inquiry was archived without sanctions. Hernández’s departure came ten days before the party’s 11 July assembly, where the reported leadership slate was headed by Verónica Martínez Barbero and Rosa Martínez.
The departures also reshaped the party’s political and government presence. Yolanda Díaz withdrew from Movimiento Sumar’s organic leadership but remained Spain’s second deputy prime minister and minister of Labor and Social Economy. The deputies named as stepping aside from the new leadership phase were Txema Guijarro, Agustín Santos Maraver, Carlos Martín and Manuel Lago. Senior government officials Joaquín Pérez Rey, Amparo Merino and Fabio Cortese were also listed as leaving their posts. Ernest Urtasun, the culture minister, remained a central figure linking the party’s government role to its new leadership. This was an organizational change, not an immediate ministerial reshuffle.
The slate presented ahead of the assembly included parliamentary figures Lander Martínez, Esther Gil, Viviane Ogou and Laura Vergara, along with MEP Estrella Galán and regional leaders Esperanza Gómez of Andalucía, Paulo Carlos López of Galicia and Alba García Martín of Euskadi. Running under the name Sumar para gobernar, it also included housing and energy specialists Javier Burón and Fernando Ferrando, alongside Amanda Andrades, then secretary for Feminisms and LGTBIQA+. After the assembly, the leadership’s challenge was to rebuild the organization and manage its ties with Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid and los Comuns.
The leadership change also fed into a broader electoral project. By October, Martínez Barbero had been confirmed in fourth place on Frente Amplio’s Madrid congressional list, a decision unanimously ratified by Movimiento Sumar’s executive. Emilio Delgado headed the Madrid slate, while Ada Colau was named as the project’s candidate for prime minister. Urtasun was reported as number two on the Barcelona list. Martínez Barbero said she accepted the responsibility of representing people who wanted Spain to remain “a benchmark for progress” and rejected a right-wing government. Lander Martínez, Sumar’s member of Congress for Bizkaia, called the next general election “decisive” and said the objective was to “maintain a progressive government.”
Sumar’s internal difficulties have unfolded amid poor results in regional and European elections since 2024, as well as a limited territorial presence. Its effort to coordinate with Izquierda Unida, Comuns and Más Madrid has become basic to its prospects. The Madrid regional alliance has been a particular source of tension, with Mónica García’s party reported as wary of joining forces with other groups. The party must now restore organizational cohesion while preparing for a national contest in which the wider progressive bloc is seeking to consolidate its forces.
The crisis echoes wider disputes within Spain’s political parties over leadership and coalition strategy, including tensions within PSOE described in a report on internal disputes erupting during PSOE's primary race in Madrid. For Movimiento Sumar, the July leadership change and subsequent Frente Amplio list-building have made the challenge twofold: re-establish the party’s internal structure and define how it will work with allied progressive organizations.
Yolanda Díaz established Movimiento Sumar in 2023 to bring together allies within the broader Sumar coalition for the general election. Since then, the party has struggled to build a strong territorial base and faced repeated internal disputes. Díaz’s departure from its organic leadership, while retaining her government responsibilities, clarified the distinction between the party’s internal structure and its role in the national executive. The new leadership’s ability to rebuild the organization and maintain cooperation with its allies will shape Sumar’s position in Spain’s developing political field.
