The ruling Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and its allied left suffered a heavy defeat. “It is not an optimistic reading and it cannot be confined to the local or regional sphere,” he pointed out.
Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos.
Twitter.
The former vice president of Government of Spain Pablo Iglesias advocated this Saturday for a left drive for the July 23 elections, after the “catastrophic” results of the regional and municipal elections last weekend, in which the ruler Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the allied left suffered a heavy defeat.
“The electoral results have been catastrophic for the left as a whole and in particular for Unidas Podemos”, Iglesias pointed out about the group he founded, in statements to radio 10. “It is not an optimistic and cannot be circumscribed to the local or regional sphere”he pointed.
In the municipal elections last Sunday, the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) added just over 7 million votes (31.53%), while the Socialists obtained 6.2 million (28.12%). In the 12 regions that renewed their Parliament, the PP maintains Madrid, with an absolute majority, and was the most voted in the communities of Murcia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Aragon, La Rioja, and Cantabria, in which he will be able to govern if he agrees with the extreme right of Vox. In the Canary Islands he will have other allies. In Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Navarra, and Asturias the stage is still open.
After the electoral setback, the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, called general elections for July 23, about six months ahead of schedule. On Wednesday, Sánchez called on the left to “give up the battle” against the advance of the right-wing and extreme-right parties. “In Spain we can stop this reactionary current, for our sons and daughters,” he said.
Iglesias also joined the request for unity: “We all have to go to the elections together and we have to reach an agreement”, said. “I think that the Spanish left has to be mature enough for there to be a fair, reasonable agreement, in which the whole world is involved,” she added.
At the same time, the former leader of Podemos considered that in recent times there had been “a cultural and ideological advance of the right” that had an electoral translation. “There are many people on the left who wonder how it is possible that the successes of the coalition government in terms of public policies (…) can be translated into such a mediocre electoral result,” she analyzed. Iglesias considered that Podemos and its leaders were the ones that received the most hostility in “this cultural battle” and assured that “If the left does not have media power, it has no future.”
The Spaniard, who in May 2021 announced his departure from politics and dedicated himself to journalism, He said that “the media right corners progressive sectors by forcing them to speak about the issues they want.” “In politics what does not kill you gives you enormous preparation, lThe women who are now in charge received what no other leftist leader received in Spain”he assured.
Besides, lashed out at the president of the Community of Madrid and one of the strong names of the PP, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of whom he said that “she embodies better than Donald Trump what political Trumpism represents”, and considered that “it is an instrument for the media right in Spain”. “Ayuso could get to the Gran Vía, take a shotgun and kill someone and increase the number of votes as long as the media correlation of forces is what it is,” he added.
Source: Ambito
