Podemos celebrates its tenth anniversary this Wednesday after a decade of political activity devoured at full speed.
It was on January 17, 2014 when the project, still in its infancy, was presented at Madrid’s Teatro del Barrio as a “broad process” and “lever of change.” Two years later, already established as a party, it burst into Congress with 69 deputies and was less than 400,000 votes away from surpassing the PSOE. In 2020 he entered the Government, piercing the hegemonic two-party system for decades. And now, after a spiral of internal and external wars that has made it decline until it has only 22 deputies in the entire country, it is forced to shed its skin to reinvent itself from the mixed group and avoid a national disappearance that it has already suffered. in various territories such as Madrid. The same one who saw him born.
With no possibilities in the upcoming regional elections in Galicia, and with the unknown hovering over those of Euskadi, the lifeline to which the current leadership group clings is the European elections. The same ones that served as a national springboard to go from the sets and the gatherings, to the corridors of the institutions with a speech that shook the elites, the monarchy, the Ibex35, the Church… to the “caste”, as they managed to coin.
In 10 years there have been many names related to Podemos. Only a handful of them are still, to a greater or lesser extent, in the ointment. We are talking about Pablo Iglesias, its first general secretary; Juan Carlos Monedero, former number three of the purple direction; Miguel Urbán, deputy of the European Parliament; Íñigo Errejón, Sumar deputy after his time in Más Madrid; Teresa Rodríguez, leader of Adelante Andalucía; or Luis Alegre, member of the first Citizen Council.
Between all of them, and some more, they were molding a political artifact that grew in the heat of citizen discontent with the political class. But, over time, the discontent ended up being internal with innumerable fights and misadventures between the multiple Pabloist, anti-capitalist, Errejonist, Yolandist currents that ended up proving incompatible at all levels despite the fact that they had conspired for the opposite: “Heaven does not It is taken by consensus, it is taken by storm.
You only have to take the first family photos to illustrate the voracity with which the strategic and ideological battles have been fought in Podemos. Only half a dozen of those dozens of young people who gave birth to the child are still linked to the party today. And none with prominent positions.
The turning point was Vistalegre II (February 2018). With an imposing territorial power, including the mayorships of Barcelona and Madrid through the coalitions of the “city councils of change”, the battle between Pablo Iglesias and Íñigo Errejón reached its final consequences. And after the incontestable triumph of the former, nothing would be the same again. Everything related to the second was “separated or laminated” as reported by some of those affected who ended up either leaving politics or jumping to Más Madrid, first, or Sumar, later.
Meanwhile, the territorial structures that emerged at full speed, but without the control desired by the Podemos command post, began to snub the directives of the leadership amid accusations of fumbling in appointments.
The gaps were occupied by other profiles such as Irene Montero, former Minister of Equality and current number two, or Pablo Echenique, former Secretary of Organization.
Between internal fights, and repetitions of elections due to the reluctance of the PSOE to govern in coalition with the purples, Podemos began to lose steam.
From 69 deputies they went to 42, first, and 35 later. Although, paradoxically, it was with the worst result of those three that the party managed to enter the Government and occupy five ministries. Including the second Vice Presidency that Iglesias held until he resigned on March 15, 2021 to face, and be swept away, by Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the elections for the Community of Madrid.
The emergencies of a party where alarms were accumulating, led to a Vistalegre IV (June 2021) with a new direction under the leadership of Ione Belarra, who had also held the portfolio of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 when Iglesias left the Council. of Ministers.
The following was not as consensual as in the Vistalegres. Iglesias decided on his own, and without consulting the bases, that the successor at the head of the space would be the then Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz. But the move did not turn out as only the former founder of Podemos had in mind and the Galician woman set up her own political project called Sumar and in which the purple ones always reported having been “cornered.” This made the relationship within the Government very complicated and made it unviable, as became evident shortly afterwards, for Podemos to remain within the coalition that emerged for 23-J.
Between complaints of vetoes, from Adding Irene Montero to the electoral lists of July 23, 2023, and from Podemos to Nacho Álvarez to be the purple minister of the coalition, and games of chairs for the distribution of deputy spokespersons, the Coexistence was impossible. To the point that Podemos’s decision to abandon Sumar’s parliamentary group was more of a respite for both parties than a tragedy. Although they both lost.
Add for being singled out for not being able to move forward with the unemployment benefit and Podemos for seeing its ability to maneuver reduced to the role of uncomfortable partner only when, through Junts’ abstention, its votes are necessary for the Government. From there, everything will depend on the European elections in which Podemos, with Irene Montero as candidate, risks its survival more than its future.
