After the defeat in Madrid, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias announced he was quitting politics

Pablo Iglesias said goodbye to active politics. This was announced from the squad’s headquarters in Madrid, where he highlighted the results of the United We Can coalition in the elections held on Tuesday. Iglesias thus advances his withdrawal after having resigned from all his political posts despite having improved the electoral results to three deputies (from 7 in 2019 to 10 this 4-M).

Iglesias, who had already left the executive of socialist Pedro Sánchez in March to compete in Madrid and try to revive his party, said that “When you are no longer useful, you have to know how to withdraw”, so that leaves “everything [sus] accusations ”and“ politics understood as party politics ”.

Iglesias recalled that it is not even seven years after the European elections in which his party burst onto the electoral scene for the first time, and praised “the things we have accomplished” since then. This is why he is “proud” to have led “a project that changed the history of our country.”

Iglesias underlined his pride in having been “useful”, in having “served”, but justified his decision by coming to the conclusion that he ceased to be useful after putting all his intelligence and all his passion into it. .

With his mane tied in a ponytail or bun, this 42-year-old former political science professor He was the undisputed protagonist of Spanish politics since the creation in 2014 of the radical left-wing Podemos, heir to the indignados movement and the massive anti-austerity demonstrations of 2011.

After years of power hunting, in January 2020 entered government as one of the vice-presidents of the socialist Pedro Sánchez.

Just a year later confused the country by resigning stand for the regional elections in Madrid and try to save the furniture of his party in a stronghold that had smiled on them at first.

The risky bet ended in resounding failure. Despite the high turnout, left-wing parties were overtaken by the right in the capital region, which has governed it for 26 years, and Podemos had to settle for fifth place and 7% of the vote.

In his speech acknowledging the defeat in Madrid, Iglesias claimed that “it is obvious that to this day (…) I am not helping to add”, so he announced that he abandons all his “positions” and “politics understood as party politics”.

Aware of being “the scapegoat” who mobilized against him the vote of the right and the far right, “when you are no longer useful, you have to know how to withdraw,” said Iglesias, who gave the reins of ministerial training. labor, Yolanda Díaz.

His activism

Born October 17, 1978 in MadridPolitics has run in Pablo Iglesias ‘veins from an early age, whose name pays homage to the founder of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), Pablo Iglesias.

Son of a lawyer and a labor inspector imprisoned during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), he joined the communist youth at the age of 14, an early activism that led him to take an interest in anti-globalization movements and the new socialism emerging in Latin America.

This passion translated into a successful academic career: doctorate in political science, law degree, master’s degree in communication and five years of teaching at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he would meet who would be the founding nucleus of Podemos.

With fists raised and shouting “Yes, we can”, Iglesias and his comrades from Podemos entered the European Parliament in 2014 and in 2015, along with the centrists of Ciudadanos, ended the bipartisanship of socialists and conservatives in Spain.

Denouncing austerity and the political and economic “caste”, Podemos became the third force of the Spanish Congress, where the shapes and appearance of its members contrasted with parliamentary solemnity.

Frustrated his attempt to overtake the Socialists as the leading leftist force, in 2018 ended up understanding with them to overthrow the conservative Mariano Rajoy with a motion of censure and to invest Pedro Sánchez, with whom in 2020 he formed the first coalition government in Spain after Franco’s dictatorship.

Charismatic and lover of televised debates, Pablo Iglesias was the soul of Podemos since its founding, when his face and his ponytail he appeared on the ballots for the 2014 European elections, his first electoral contest.

This hyper-leadership has generated differences with the other founders and even splits within the young formation that he led until Tuesday. with his wife and Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, like a right hand.

With her, Iglesias, who boasted of having grown up in the humble Vallecas neighborhood in the working heart of Madrid, bought a villa with a swimming pool for more than 600,000 euros on the outskirts of the capital where they live with their three children. , a decision that generated discord within the formation.

The praise garnered from his own contrasts with the right-wing demonization of him, which criticizes his ties to the Latin American left and Chavism, his former communist activism. or its proximity to Basque and Catalan separatists.

Source: EFE, AFP and La Vanguardia

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