Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the Spanish version of populism …

It’s been two months, Pablo Iglesias He was vice-president of the government and the undisputed reference in Spain for all the space to the left of the PSOE. Last night he announced his retirement from politics.

A series of glaring strategy failures and misreadings of reality led him to abandon the ship he built from scratch just seven years ago, when, along with other university professors , he created Podemos to give political representation to the outraged youth movement. victims of the economic crisis that began in 2008 – and which now leaves one part of the government but in clear electoral decline. With his departure, there is no longer a member of the founding group in Podemos, after the majority gradually left, purged by Iglesias himself and his closest surroundings.

The episode which marked the end of his short but very intense political career was the electoral hurricane named Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a still very recently unknown activist of the People’s Party of Madrid This shares oddly with the city of Iglesias and its date of birth: Madrid, October 17, 1978.

Díaz Ayuso had been president of the Community of Madrid for two years after in 2019 the three right-wing forces -PP, Ciudadanos and Vox- added more votes than the left bloc. In the past year, the leader of the PP took advantage of the crisis caused by the pandemic to embody the discontent and despair of businessmen and workers whose restrictive measures imposed to contain the spread of the virus plunged into economic disaster.

Its mix of liberal populism, Madrid supremacism vis-à-vis the rest of the regions (a hitherto unprecedented element in Spanish politics) and denial of the effectiveness of health measures garnered a barrage of votes during the elections. yesterday’s ballot box left, but erased Ciudadanos, the liberal formation which until now had been its partner in government, and go to the corner of Vox, the far-right formation which, since 2018, has been developing election after election and which has barely obtained a seat more than it had.

Díaz Ayuso won 65 seats, just four of the absolute majority, and added more than the three left forces combined: Más Madrid, PSOE (the most voted party two years ago and now relegated to third) and United We Can. With this result, Díaz Ayuso will not have to resort to the voices of Vox nor to integrate this force into his government.

It was precisely the possibility of the far right entering the executive – during the campaign it announced that it would not support Díaz Ayuso from the outside, without demanding government portfolios – which this prompted Pablo Iglesias to give up his post as vice-president and get into regional politics.

Until then, as soon as the elections were called in Madrid, Iglesias’ political force, United We Can, appeared in the polls as an extraparliamentary party failing to reach the minimum of 5% that the Madrid electoral law requires as a minimum. to enter the distribution of seats.

Despite this weakness with which the campaign began, Iglesias presented himself as the guarantor of the brake on the far right. He unsuccessfully raised Más Madrid – the formation of his former partner and co-founder of Podemos Iñigo Errejón– stand behind him. The response he received from the candidate for this training, the anesthesiologist Monica GarciaHe warned that the effort was not going to be easy for Iglesias. “We women are tired of doing the dirty work so that in historic moments we are told to step back,” she told him publicly.

Iglesias barely managed to mobilize a minimal part of the left electorate, he got a meager seven percent of the vote and left his strength relegated to fifth position with ten seats. His resignation was chanted.

In the campaign, Iglesias came up with a strategy that turned out to be wrong. While Díaz Ayuso ignored his opponents and focused almost exclusively on criticism of the management of the pandemic in Pedro Sanchez With the slogan “socialism or freedom”, Iglesias focused on denouncing the danger that the far right could touch real power. His slogan “fascism or democracy” to which he succeeded in leading the PSOE barely found an echo in the electorate. Más Madrid, who campaigned neighborhood by neighborhood and more focused on the need to strengthen public services, managed to overcome both. Monica Garcia will head the opposition.

Iglesias’ failure in his last political performance was twofold. Not only did he fail to prevent the right wing’s triumph, but he also left his formation relegated to an irrelevant place. Last night, after the results were confirmed, he announced he was quitting the “We Failed” policy, he said.

Admittedly, the decision had been reshuffled for several days, when Unidos Podemos could not win in the polls. Yesterday evening, during the electoral count, he summoned the executive of the Party urgently to inform him of his decision. “In this campaign, I became a scapegoat. I think it is clear that today I am not a political figure who can contribute to my party, ”he admitted with a very serious gesture.

Regarding his future, he only announced that he would return to teach at the university and that he would like to resume his experience “with critical journalism”.

The replacement at the head of Podemos will be taken by labor lawyer Yolanda Díaz, who is part of Pedro Sánchez’s government as third vice president and minister of labor and social economy and who will lead the candidacy of United We Can when the general election is called.