From Madrid
Spanish political life, which takes nearly a week from surprise to surprise, saw another unexpected development in the scenario on Monday. Podemos’ Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary General, Pablo Iglesias, announced his decision to abdicate his current responsibilities to focus on a less important but deeply political official goal. Will lead a bid to try Avoid what all polls announce: a new victory for the Right in Community of Madrid This will open the Vox portal for the first time in an independent government.
The decision also means accelerating the time of his replacement in the leadership of Podemos, as the current Minister of Labor and Social Affairs will succeed him, Yolanda Diaz, whom Pedro Sanchez will appoint as Deputy Prime Minister in place of Iglesias.
Spanish politics has been plunged into a whirlwind of unexpected news since last Wednesday after Ciudadanos, which identifies itself as liberal and centrist, breached his government’s agreement with the Popular Party in the Community of Murcia and made a proposal to place the blame on the side of the Socialist Workers Party. .
The region of Murcia is a region of less than a million and a half inhabitants with little political importance, but this rupture between Ciudadanos and the People’s Party led to a series of events of greater significance on the same day. The most important happened In the community of Madrid, with 179 municipalities including the capital, the third most populous in Spain. Its popular president is Isabel Diaz AyusoReferred to from the left as the Spanish embodiment of Trumpism for its irresponsible management during the pandemic and his liberal, populist rhetoric, It broke the government’s agreement with Ciudadanos and announced the dissolution of the assembly (the regional parliament) and the call for elections.
He did so knowing that the polls predicted a comfortable victory and the possibility to continue ruling this time not supported by the citizens but by Vox. The far-right power that the economic and social crisis caused by the epidemic and the Catalan independence movement led to an outright electoral escalation. In the last independent elections in Catalonia, it managed to overtake both PP and Ciudadanos, making itself the number one force of the Spanish right in this independent community.
After the Madrid Assembly was dissolved, the two main opposition forces in that community, PSOE and Más Madrid (the co-founder party of Podemos Inigo Erjon), have made proposals to blame for trying to avoid electoral progress, since one event. The alliance with Ciudadanos with the support of Podemos can give them the government. The dispute had to be settled in the courts, which last Friday ruled that since Diaz Ayesu resigned before the petitions were filed, it was appropriate to celebrate The elections are scheduled for May 4.
In the video published by his party announcing his decision to go to these elections, Pablo Iglesias asserted that his goal is to cut the path to the extreme right. . “In politics, you have to have the courage to fight and make room for new leaders. Madrid needs a left-wing government and I think I can be useful,” he said.
Diaz Ayuso, who said when announcing the election call that Madrilens should choose “between socialism and freedom,” a dichotomy modeled on the one used by Donald Trump In the recent elections in North America, he responded sarcastically to the challenge posed by Iglesias and asserted that the choice now would be “communism or freedom.” He also asserted that the Spaniards should thank him for being able to remove the Podemos leader from the government of Pedro Sanchez.
Iglesias ‘bold movement enjoys a deep reading in an internal key to the political space to the left of the Socialist Workers’ Party. In the last regional elections, held in 2019, Unidos Podemos had barely 5.5 percent of the vote. He finished sixth and was on the verge of becoming an additional Member of Parliament, which would have happened had it dropped below 5 percent. Occupying its political space, Errejón is the party that received the most votes in the municipal elections but remained in the regional elections below 15 percent and fell to fourth place behind PSOE, PP and Ciudadanos. Vox, at roughly 9 percent, also performed better than Podemos.
A new consequence of these characteristics in Spain’s third most populous society would have been fatal for Podemus. On your initiative Iglesias, who has called the Errejón party to join his candidacy, places his opponent and former colleague in front of the position of joining his project or appearing to be responsible for the split of the left that could facilitate Vox’s access to an independent government.
The movement also intends to pre-empt a possible coalition policy shift for the Socialist Workers’ Party, which is beginning to view Ciudadanos, in an outright electoral retreat, as a more comfortable ally. If Iglesias succeeds in his move, he will have deactivated Iregon, his main political rival in the region who has tripled it in 2019, and would force Sanchez again to agree with him. If it cannot prevent the right-wing from maintaining community government, then a political star has begun to fade.
