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<h1>A New Political Force Emerges In Spain</h1>
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<div class="cat-date-line"><span class="cat-date-line2"><a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/category/organize/"
title="View all posts in Organize!" rel="category tag">Organize!</a></span>
<span class="cat-date-line3"> <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/fascism/"
rel="tag">Fascism</a>, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/spain/" rel="tag">Spain</a>
</span> <br>
<span class="cat-date-line4">By Sebastiaan Faber, <a
href="http://www.albavolunteer.org/2014/09/fighting-the-new-fascism-juan-carlos-monedero-on-podemos-spains-new-political-force/"
target="_blank">www.albavolunteer.org</a><br>
September 13th, 2014</span><br>
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<p><em>Pablo Iglesias, leader of PODEMOS</em></p>
<h2>Fighting the new fascism: Juan Carlos Monedero on PODEMOS,
Spain’s new political force</h2>
<p><big><big><strong><em>In Spain this past May, the usually dull
and boring elections to the European Union’s Parliament
produced a sudden shock to the political system. A new
two-month-old party led by a 35-year-old, pony-tailed
political scientist, appeared out of nowhere—but clearly
from the Left—to sweep up a surprising 8 percent of the
votes. The result was good to win five European seats,
transforming the infant organization into the country’s
4th largest political force. One of the party’s
founders, political scientist Juan Carlos Monedero,
spoke with us in late August.</em></strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="p1"><big><big><span class="s1">The unexpected European
triumph of Spain’s newcomer on the Left underscored the
affirmative simplicity of its name—PODEMOS: <i>We Can.</i>
Or perhaps better: <i>Together We Can Do It. </i>The
party’s rise has been meteoric. PODEMOS began as a
grassroots movement in January 2014 and did not register
as a party until March. Since the May elections, it has
multiplied its support; according to an August 31 poll
PODEMOS would earn 21 percent of the votes, only one
percent less than the Socialist Party. Its political
program, the details of which are still being defined,
calls for broad political, economic, and social reforms: a
new social contract that supersedes neoliberalism. (For
more details see the <a
href="http://www.albavolunteer.org/2014/09/fighting-the-new-fascism-juan-carlos-monedero-on-podemos-spains-new-political-force/#podemos">sidebar</a>.)</span></big></big></p>
<p><a
href="http://www.albavolunteer.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Juan-Carlos-Monedero-1.jpg"><img
scale="0" class="size-medium wp-image-10489"
src="cid:part16.06040100.00050008@comcast.net" alt="Juan
Carlos Monedero. Photo Sarah Bienzobas." height="199"
width="300"></a></p>
<p class="p1"><big><big><span class="s1">Among the party’s most
prominent public faces is Juan Carlos Monedero, a
political scientist at the Universidad Complutense de
Madrid. Monedero has extensive international experience as
a consultant to progressive politicians (particularly in
Latin America), has worked for years with Spain’s United
Left, is a fixture in the Spanish media, and has served as
an academic mentor to PODEMOS leader Pablo Iglesias. (More
on Monedero <a
href="http://www.albavolunteer.org/2014/09/fighting-the-new-fascism-juan-carlos-monedero-on-podemos-spains-new-political-force/#jcm">here</a>.) </span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="p1"><big><big><span class="s1">Monedero’s life since May
has been a whirlwind, with almost daily appearances on
television, trips abroad, and feverish preparations to get
PODEMOS ready for its first constitutive congress in
September. In this first extensive interview to be
published in English since the rise of PODEMOS, Monedero
spoke to <i>The Volunteer </i>about the birth of the
party and his role in it; the Spanish crisis; the
progressive tradition; the lessons from Latin America; and
the future of his country. “I am a hopeful pessimist.
We’re facing a long and difficult struggle. But we have
plenty of reasons to keep fighting.”</span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="p1"><big><big><strong><span class="s1"><i>Why PODEMOS
and why now?</i></span></strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="p1"><big><big><span class="s1">JCM: Those of us who
launched PODEMOS found each other in the Faculty of
Political Science and Sociology in Madrid, and in <i>La
Tuerka, </i>a political debate program. We agreed that
the model of Spanish democracy as it had been established
in 1978 was exhausted, and we felt the same about
representative democracy under neoliberalism in general.
What compelled us into action in early 2014 was a series
of different factors. First, the United Left (IU)
unilaterally abandoned a project that had tried to bring
different political forces together. Second, the European
elections in May opened a window of opportunity. These are
the only elections in Spain that bypass electoral
districts, so that every vote counts the same, and they
draw a relatively low turnout, so that fewer votes are
needed for a seat. It was an attractive opportunity to try
for an electoral breakthrough. Finally, Pablo Iglesias had
become a very powerful presence in the media, while I had
spent a couple of years traveling all over Spain to give
talks. So a whole range of elements coincided: the
possibility of a nationwide network, our media presence,
the European window of opportunity, the exhaustion of the
current regime—and the fact that some polls indicated that
there was electoral room for a new political party. Like
in a fairy tale, everything came together: the princess,
the castle, the woods, the frog-turned-prince, the
seven-league boots. All we needed was the kiss—which we
got on May 25 in the form of 1,250,000 votes.</span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="p1"><big><big><strong><span class="s1"><i>You are part
of the PODEMOS leadership but are not yourself running
for office.</i></span></strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="p1"><big><big><span class="s1">JCM: Yes, and that is on
purpose. Among the founding group we decided that only
Pablo Iglesias would run. This is our way of showing the
voters that we are not in this for a cushy political job.
That there is a different way of doing politics. We are
now working toward the constitutive congress, from which
an elected leadership team will emerge.</span></big></big></p>
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