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Tommy Greene is a freelance journalist and translator based in Madrid.
Over two thousand people have died trying to cross from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands so far this year. While the European Union boasts of its humanitarian migrant policy, it has made these islands into a rampart of a murderous border regime.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has announced his retirement. Over the last decade, he brought the radical left to the heart of Spanish politics — but its challenge to the establishment ultimately fell short.
On Monday, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias announced he is resigning as Spain’s deputy prime minister to run for election in the Madrid region. Iglesias’s move to regional politics is aimed at blocking the formation of another far-right government in the capital — but it also highlights his own party’s need to go beyond relying on one brilliant communicator.
A year into Spain’s coalition government, today’s budget offers major public health care investment and a commitment to expand the Guaranteed Minimum Income plan. These promises show how Unidas Podemos has changed the political agenda — and yet centrist ministers are still stonewalling on measures that risk upsetting business.
This January, a pact between the Socialists and Unidas Podemos gave Spain its first ruling left-wing coalition since the Civil War. One of two communist ministers, Alberto Garzón, spoke to Jacobin about the government’s survival in these times of crisis — and why the militant right still refuses to accept its legitimacy.
Today Alberto Garzón was sworn in as a minister in Spain’s new government — the first communist to take up such a role since the Civil War. He spoke to Jacobin about what it means to be a communist today and how Spain’s social movements can shape the next government’s agenda.
The new government coalition between the PSOE and Podemos is a historic opportunity for the Spanish left. After years of rising nationalist tensions, Podemos can turn the agenda back to the fight against austerity.
The NHS is one of the great social achievements of the twentieth century — and it’s currently under attack. If an incoming Jeremy Corbyn–led Labour government wins today’s election, it will have to be serious about rebuilding Britain’s health service.
After a failed early election gambit, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has finally accepted Podemos into his government. It’s a huge achievement for the Left — and a way to free Spain of its sharpening nationalist tensions.
The clashes in Barcelona reflect intense popular anger at the jailing of Catalan leaders. Since 2017’s disputed referendum, the conflict has appeared increasingly intractable — and as protests become more militant, the pro-independence parties are losing control of events.
The long prison sentences for the organizers of Catalunya’s outlawed independence referendum are just the latest sign of Spain’s repressive turn. The Catalan crisis has brought the state’s authoritarian impulses to the surface — and set a terrible precedent for criminalizing dissent.
Fifty years since British troops were deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland, the peace process is again in danger. The turmoil surrounding Brexit has raised hopes of Irish unity — but also risks a fresh descent into violence.
By granting asylum to Julian Assange in 2012, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa made clear his country would no longer bow to US diktats. The decision this spring to allow Assange’s arrest shows how far Ecuador’s challenge to empire has faded.
Pablo Iglesias has entered into talks with Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party. But if Podemos is to survive, it can’t just be a junior partner to the establishment center-left: it needs to revive its promise to transform Spanish democracy.
Spain’s right has declared feminism Enemy Number 1. To defeat the backlash, feminism can’t just be one side in a culture war. It must be about providing everyone with the material basis for autonomy over their own lives.
The Spanish Socialist Party swept to victory in this Sunday’s general election. Yet the risk of a liberal-centrist government shows the need to do more than just mobilize progressives against the far right.
Disputes over Spain’s national borders have dominated the campaign for today’s election. But Podemos’s radical environmental program against the billionaire class can save the entire planet.
Polling for today’s general election forecasts heavy losses for Podemos. With Spanish politics polarized around the threat from the far right, Pablo Iglesias’s anti-austerity agenda is struggling to make itself heard.
Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez styles himself as the main barrier to Spain’s rising far right. Yet his record as prime minister shows how little he is doing to stop it.
Data theft, spying, fabricated documents. The Spanish state is trying to derail Podemos and its challenge to elites.