π₯ Is Pablo Iglesias (Podemos) back?
Is the former party leader going to open up a giant can of worms about the monarchy in Spain before all of the elections next year?
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Most of the focus on populists this year in Spain has been on the right with Vox, as in other countries with some kind of alt-right, but is Podemos founder Pablo Iglesias making a comeback? On Sunday he gave a speech at a party conference that sounded an awful lot like what he might say if he were.
In a simliar manner to Abascal with his new global MAGA alliance, with many references to Latin America, Iglesias made an appeal to the radical left there to rise up against capitalism and big media that want to βput an end to the governments of the peopleβ. For Europe, he said his version of the left is to defend against βneoliberal pro-NATO technocracyβ, and against the far-right and fascism. He quoted a tweet from Pablo Elorduy: βI would really like to think a European cordon sanitaire will be put up to keep out Vox, Zemmour and Meloni but I think they will form part of this eraβs consensusβ¦and what they want to leave out is Corbyn, Melenchon, Tsipras and Belarraβ.
He attacked SΓ‘nchez for congratulating Meloni in Italy. The crowd booed. For Spain, he railed againstβ¦the monarchy. Is Podemos, while still making up half of the current Spanish government, going to push a debate on the republic in the run up to all of the elections next year? What will the more mild-mannered Deputy PM, Yolanda Diaz (Sumar, Communist Party), do with that hot potato? βWhat do you mean itβs not the time to talk about the monarchy?β, wondered Iglesias: βif the monarchy has become the political signifier of the right and far-right? [β¦] They know that the thread that connects the dictatorship as a way of organising the power of the elites in this country with the democratic systeme is leaving [the King] as head of stateβ.
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