Movimiento Sumar’s leadership transition was formalized at its 11 July 2026 assembly, where Verónica Martínez Barbero and Rosa Martínez took over as joint coordinators. The change followed Lara Hernández García’s departure: she resigned from all party positions and ended her membership on 1 July, ten days before the assembly. The appointment shifts the party from Hernández’s individual leadership to a dual-coordination model as it prepares for coalition negotiations and the next general election cycle.
Hernández served as coordinator general from March 2025 until July 2026. She became sole coordinator after Carlos Martín resigned in August 2025. The crisis deepened when organization secretary Laura Moreno resigned and accused Hernández of workplace mistreatment. An internal investigation followed complaints from as many as six colleagues. The complaints were later withdrawn, and the inquiry closed without disciplinary sanctions. Hernández said she had faced “a brutal smear campaign” and maintained, “My conscience is clear; I am innocent.”
The leadership change comes as Movimiento Sumar works to build the Frente Amplio, an electoral alliance involving Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid, Comuns and Sumar. The alliance’s Madrid slate offers a practical measure of how the participating groups are sharing representation: Más Madrid’s Emilio Delgado is listed first, followed by Tesh Sidi, Izquierda Unida’s Toni Valero and Martínez Barbero in fourth place. El Constitucional reported that Sumar’s executive unanimously ratified Barbero’s placement. She said she was taking on the responsibility of representing people who want Spain to remain “a benchmark for progress.”
Martínez Barbero continues to combine her role as Sumar co-coordinator with that of parliamentary spokesperson. In October 2026, she urged Podemos to negotiate unified electoral lists, arguing that “a single list is a single list.” She also criticized proposals that would leave Madrid and Catalonia outside a broader agreement. The dispute reflects the limits of the Frente Amplio initiative: coalition-building among Sumar, Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid and Comuns has not resolved wider disagreements with Podemos. Ada Colau, commenting on the talks, said that “if someone does not want to sit down at the table, they cannot be forced.”
The new pact follows months of instability within Movimiento Sumar, including leadership resignations and the internal investigation into allegations against Hernández. These tensions unfolded amid a wider struggle to maintain cohesion across Spain’s left. Similar pressures have affected other Spanish parties, as seen when Leire Díez’s decision to testify independently intensified pressure on PSOE leadership.
Barbero, who has represented Pontevedra in parliament since 2023 and previously served as Director General of Labour, emerged as a consensus figure to replace Íñigo Errejón in November 2024. Martínez, a political scientist and social activist from León, was one of four interim coordinators after Yolanda Díaz stepped down following the 2024 European elections. She led the party’s political platform for the March 2025 congress, succeeding Errejón in that role. Her political background includes serving as a deputy for Bizkaia with Podemos and Unidos Podemos, then as an independent after leaving Equo in 2019. She returned to politics with the founding of Sumar in 2023.
The leadership’s immediate test is whether it can hold together an electoral arrangement among several organizations while navigating unresolved disagreements over the wider left’s cooperation with Podemos. Martínez Barbero’s calls for unified lists show that coalition talks remain a basic responsibility for the new leadership. The success of the dual-coordinator arrangement will depend in part on its ability to consolidate support within Sumar and maintain a workable alliance among its partners.
