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MADRID, June 10 (Reuters) – An alliance between Spain’s main far-left parties Sumar and Podemos will be “more than positive” to help win next month’s election, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Podemos, the junior partner in the coalition government with S\u00e1nchez’s Socialist Party, announced on Friday that it will join forces with Sumar and a number of small regional parties for the July 23 election.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez called early elections after his Socialist party and Podemos fared worse in last month’s local elections, losing ground to right-wing parties.<\/p>\n
Analysts said a unified far left is essential to S\u00e1nchez’s chances of re-election.<\/p>\n
Sanchez told a meeting of party supporters in Madrid on Saturday that the Sumar-Podemos deal was “more than positive”, adding that “unity is the first proof of responsibility”.<\/p>\n
Yolanda D\u00edaz, Minister of Labor and leader of Sumar, told a meeting of party supporters in Madrid on Saturday that the alliance with Podemos offers hope for the elections.<\/p>\n
A sticking point between Podemos and Sumar had been Sumar’s opposition to Equality Minister Irene Montero, a prominent Podemos figure, who was left off the electoral rolls for next month’s poll.<\/p>\n
In recent months, Montero has faced criticism for his landmark sexual consent law that included a loophole that has allowed 1,127 sentences to be reduced and 115 sex offenders to be released from prison early, according to Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary.<\/p>\n
A unified far left is essential for S\u00e1nchez to have any chance of re-election, Jose Pablo Ferrandiz, head of polling company Ipsos in Spain, told Reuters on Friday.<\/p>\n
A more likely outcome is that a unified far left prevents the conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox from forming a coalition government, producing a hung parliament and repeat elections, Ferrandiz said.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Graham Keeley; Additional reporting by Juan Medina and Michael Gore; Editing by Mike Harrison<\/span><\/p>\n Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.<\/a><\/p>\n