Unidos Podemos
Unidas Podemos is a coalition party that was formed in 2016 out of politically left parties such as Podemos led by Pablo Iglesias, the IU (United Left) led by Alberto Garzon and, Equo a green party led by Loic Alejandro. The goal of the party at the time of its formation was to contest the 2016 general election in Spain against their rival on the right the PP and to sap votes away from the PSOE on the left. The party ideologically is considered to be a left-wing populist party that seeks to promote anti-corruption, anti-elite, pro common man rhetoric that was popular among the main coalition partner Podemos, who emerged out of the 15-M movement which among the positions already mentioned, sought to rid Spain of the two party gridlock between the PP and PSOE by offering an alternative. In addition to this, Podemos seeks to remain apolitical and have a more broad appeal by reframing political thought around more populist lines. Rather than identifying with the political left or the right they argue that the divide is between the privileged and unprivileged with whom they support the latter. This essentially manifests itself in the policies of a universal basic income to help alleviate poverty, punitive measures to prevent corruption from the elite, the promotion of green energy and infrastructure, and the assertion of social rights and liberties. Although seemingly running a strong ticket the party faced a major electoral defeat in the Spanish 2016 general election after neither gaining nor losing any seats in the Cortes general but lost nearly 1.1 million votes. Most recently in the 2019 Spanish general election the results were not any better having lost 29 seats mostly to the PSOE dropping them to the 4th among the largest parties in Spain.
SOURCES:
–https://www.eldiario.es/piedrasdepapel/ideologia-Podemos-Ciudadanos_6_379422094.html
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Spanish_general_election
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Spanish_general_election
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podemos_(Spanish_political_party)
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidas_Podemos
–https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidas_Podemos
–https://podemos.info/programa/europa/
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-austerity_movement_in_Spain
Author: Danny Scott