Fast and Furious: Podemos’ Quest for Power in Multi-level Spain

Abstract

After a stunning breakthrough in the 2014 European election, Podemos became the third largest parliamentary party in Spain in the 2016 general election and achieved representation in all regions. This article examines how Podemos has adapted to the opportunities and dilemmas posed by Spain’s multi-level setting in several ways: its formation in early 2014 and its evolution since; its ideological principles and policy menu; its organisation; and its political strategies and electoral alliances. The hypotheses test the effects of adaptation to multi-level competition on the party electorate. The findings indicate the positive effect of support for more decentralisation on the likelihood of voting for Podemos, but also how this effect is territorially differentiated and could affect the party’s cohesion and internal debate.

Keywords:

• New parties
• multi-level competition
• populism
• party institutionalisation
• party realignment
• primaries
• Pablo Iglesias

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the journal’s editors for providing very useful insights on previous versions of this article. We are also grateful to the Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials (Institute of Political and Social Sciences) in Barcelona for its support.

Notes

1. IA was a tiny extra-parliamentary splinter from IU. On the linkages between IA and Podemos see Torreblanca (2015, p. 130).

2. Since 2010, Iglesias and other party founders have produced and broadcast by the internet and local TV a talk show called La Tuerka. The show became a training centre for the future Podemos party elite and the ideal platform to promote their ideas (Rioboó 2014; Torreblanca 2015). The show is available online at: http://www.latuerka.net.

3. By early January 2015 an SER Radio poll assigned Podemos first place with 27.5 per cent of the votes.

4. After the Catalan regional election in September 2015, the leader of Podemos’ regional branch in Catalonia resigned amid criticism of the tight control from Madrid during the campaign (El País 2015d). As happened in other regional crises, Podemos postponed the renewal of the regional leadership until the formation of a new national government.

5. In order to meet the requirements of the 2002 Spanish Party Law, Podemos’ party constitution also includes the status of so-called party ‘adherent’ (afiliado). According to the law, adherents must be over 18 and have the same rights and obligations as members (Section 9).

6. Data gathered from the official party account on Twitter (@ahorapodemos) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ahorapodemos/), and from the party website (https://podemos.info/organizacion/). Last accessed on 3 October 2016.

7. Podemos referred to the ‘caste’ particularly during its first year. An empirical analysis of the use of this term on Twitter suggests that the presence of this argument in the party message has declined sharply since the 2015 regional election (Pujol 2016). Still, Podemos opened the campaign for the 2015 general election with two TV spots entitled ‘Damned casta, blessed people’ (‘Maldita casta, bendita gente’). Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUWZ948a4J8

8. Source: Study No. 3,126 Pre-electoral Survey (March 2016).

9. Source: Study No. 3,141 Post-electoral Survey (June 2016).

10. This was the case in Galicia after Podemos accepted the conditions to participate in En Marea, which led to the cancellation of the primaries for the regional candidates.