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O
psicodrama do Podemos
Diogo Queiroz de
Andrade
12 de Fevereiro de
2017, 6:30 Partilhar notícia
A revolução dos
académicos da Complutense vai consumar-se hoje. O congresso do
Podemos, força política que tomou de assalto a vida espanhola, tem
tanto de novela venezuelana como de trama digno de Shakespeare.
Hoje vai saber-se
quem ganhou o braço de ferro: Pablo Iglésias e a sua linha dura,
que quer manter o Podemos na extrema-esquerda da vida espanhola; ou a
via centrista de Iñigo Errejón, que quer fazer crescer a base de
apoio do partido e corrigir o alvo depois do falhanço das
legislativas de junho.
Este psicodrama do
Podemos é fascinante. Quem o acompanha tem visto nele um reflexo das
dificuldades da democracia moderna – em que é preciso decidir
entre a coerência ideológica, o pragmatismo político e as
tentações populistas mais primárias. Mas as dores de crescimento
do Podemos são velhas como o tempo e resumem-se a uma pergunta: o
Podemos quer ser poder ou não quer? Por mais que se usem frases
feitas sobre as novas formas de fazer política, o que está em causa
é o cumprimento das regras do jogo democrático tradicional. E este
não se compadece com discussões acaloradas entre fundadores no
Twitter nem com críticas à forma como um se aburguesou nas roupas e
outro se manteve coerente à imagem descuidada.
Para chegar ao poder
em democracia, costuma ser preciso apelar à maioria centrista. E
esta não quer – pelo menos, não tem querido – um Podemos
radicalizado à esquerda, com um discurso passadista cujos limites
populistas ficaram à vista na eleição de junho. A aliança com a
Esquerda Unida retirou 1,2 milhões de votos aquilo que os partidos
valiam isolados e a recusa de alinhamento com o PSOE teve custos
pesados para o Podemos. Iglesias quer manter a oposição à “tripla
aliança” (PP, PSOE, Ciudadanos), que são os partidos do centro
onde se governa, mas a linha de Erréjon quer precisamente aproximar
o partido do arco de governação em Espanha.
E agora, com o
horizonte de quatro anos de vida na oposição, o Podemos foi
obrigado a decidir entre o líder histórico e a aposta numa via nova
e incerta. Os resultados só se conhecem hoje, mas é difícil
resistir à tentação de usar o exemplo espanhol para olhar para o
estado da esquerda europeia que se debate entre refundar opções
desgastadas como o PSOE ou apostar em radicalismos populistas sem
compromissos como este Podemos de Iglesias. Paul Mason e Jeremy
Corbyn estão de certeza atentos.
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Spanish
‘psycho-drama’ plays out at top of Podemos
Leaders
will battle for the soul of the leftist party at its conference this
weekend.
By GUY
HEDGECOE 2/10/17, 4:03 AM CET Updated 2/11/17, 5:19 PM CET
MADRID — A battle
at the top of Podemos, the leftist anti-austerity party that took
Spanish politics by storm three years ago, has spilled out into the
open ahead of a big membership conference this weekend.
On January 31,
journalists and politicians in Spain’s Congress watched as the
party’s leader, Pablo Iglesias, became locked in what seemed to be
a bitter argument with his deputy, Íñigo Errejón, seated next to
him. In photos subsequently published in the media, the ponytailed
Iglesias looks haggard and tired, sometimes fiercely making a point
to his colleague, at others frowning as he listens. The usually
fresh-faced Errejón appears much older than his 33 years, at one
point wearily removing his glasses to remonstrate with the party
leader.
Afterwards, both men
played down the images. “We’re not Dutch, we gesticulate,”
quipped Iglesias.
But whatever the
content of that now infamous conversation, nobody doubts that a power
struggle has broken out in the upper ranks of the party. Most
surprising of all is that it should be waged between Iglesias and
Errejón, whose friendship and intellectual chemistry was crucial in
making Podemos the most successful and disruptive new arrival in
Spanish politics for over three decades.
The conflict has
been increasingly open and often brutal, full of conspiracy theories,
poisonous tweets and occasional public outbursts. On February 1,
Carolina Bescansa, a member of the party’s governing committee,
resigned, saying she was tired of the “train crash” of a
confrontation at the party’s heart.
Four days later, a
recently departed senior Podemos figure, Luis Alegre, published in a
national newspaper an acidic attack on a clique at the top of the
party, who “are acting like parasites on Pablo until they destroy
the organism […] I am sure Pablo will realize this only a year or
two after being killed by his own people, but by then it will be too
late.”
There is an outside
chance of a more radical overhaul, threatening the leadership of
Iglesias.
Adding to the
rancor, Antonio Montiel, the head of Podemos in Valencia, compared
the leadership style of Iglesias to that of Saddam Hussein and
Francisco Franco.
When Iglesias
himself described the intrigue as a “psycho-drama,” it was hard
to argue.
This weekend,
Podemos holds its second national civic assembly, in the Vistalegre
sports arena in Madrid. By the end of it, the party will seek to have
redefined its purpose and direction and healed some of the wounds of
recent months. But there is also an outside chance of a more radical
overhaul, threatening the leadership of Iglesias.
Dynamic duo
Founded in early
2014 by a group of lecturers from Madrid’s Complutense University,
Podemos was an almost immediate success, winning 1.2 million votes in
the EU parliamentary elections of that spring. At that time, the
Spanish economy was undergoing a shaky recovery, but the effects of
the worst recession of the modern era were still all too visible.
Meanwhile, a seemingly endless torrent of corruption cases affecting
the two main political forces, the Popular Party (PP) and the
Socialists (PSOE), fueled Spaniards’ anger at their leaders.
Podemos championed
political renewal and an end to austerity, putting it on the side of
ordinary Spaniards fed up with their discredited elites. By the end
of 2014, it was top of the opinion polls.
A core group had
plotted this rise, including Juan Carlos Monedero, a former advisor
to Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and Bescansa. But the party’s most
recognizable faces were Iglesias, now 38, and Errejón. They shared
deep leftist convictions and an obsession with political theory. Both
were informed by Latin American leftism, with Errejón writing about
the Evo Morales government of Bolivia for his PhD thesis and Iglesias
an admirer of Venezuela’s Bolivarian populism.
The duo’s
collaborative leadership was cemented at the party’s founding
national assembly in October 2014 in Vistalegre. It was a marriage
made in heaven: a media-savvy firebrand of a leader who could channel
popular anger and speak in soundbites; and his more softly-spoken,
yet highly articulate, No. 2.
In the spring of
2015, the party got a taste of real power as Podemos-backed forces
took control of major cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz,
Zaragoza and A Coruña in municipal elections. The result confirmed
the party’s enormous appeal for younger, urban Spaniards.
Then, in the general
election of December 2015, it won 69 seats in Congress, ending over
three decades of two-party politics and establishing itself as the
country’s third force. “Podemos is here to stay,” said El
Español newspaper.
But that historic
election was the start of its problems.
“[We
need to] seduce that part of the population who suffer but still
don’t trust us” — Íñigo Errejón
The vote failed to
produce a clear winner, with both the governing PP losing its
majority and the second-placed PSOE losing ground. Errejón saw an
opportunity for Podemos to form a coalition or governing agreement
with the PSOE, which was already working on a partnership with the
new liberal party, Ciudadanos. Iglesias disagreed, fearing he would
have to compromise too much with parties to his right and no deal was
reached.
Six months later, a
new election was held and Podemos ran in tandem with the
communist-led United Left (IU). Having insisted since its inception
that it represented Spaniards “down below” rather than anywhere
on the conventional political spectrum, Podemos was now firmly
placing itself on the hard left. The electoral merger failed, as the
two parties together lost around a million votes. As campaign
manager, Errejón shouldered much of the blame, although it emerged
he had never been fully convinced of the partnership.
A good-natured
Twitter conversation between Iglesias and his deputy in September
summarized the brewing discord.
Pablo Iglesias holds
Carolina Bescansa's baby at the Spanish Congress, next to her and
Íñigo Errejón
“We already scare
the powerful, that’s not the challenge,” posted Errejón, as he
called on his party to reach out to center-ground voters. “[We need
to] seduce that part of the population who suffer but still don’t
trust us.”
Iglesias replied
that “speaking clearly and being different, we will seduce more.”
Since then, the tone
has become less cordial, with social networks often the battleground
for the feuding factions surrounding the two politicians. Reports of
a conspiracy, plotted on the Telegram app, to undermine or even
overthrow Iglesias have come to light and party militants have been
trolling Errejón on Twitter with the hashtag #AsiNoInigo (“Not
like that, Íñigo”).
Although Errejón is
not formally challenging Iglesias as leader at the national
conference, the two men will offer separate proposals for the party’s
future strategy as their camps vie for control of the Civic Council
executive board.
“It’s true that
lately we’ve had a lot of differences and I think that recently
[Errejón] has been making a lot of mistakes — he needs to put
things right,” Iglesias told El País newspaper.
As if to highlight
what is at stake this weekend, he has said: “There are two
projects, two teams and two leaderships.”
Errejón, meanwhile,
has underlined his concerns at the party’s move away from the
mainstream, towards the left.
“In 2016 there was
an ideological and political change in Podemos, which has been more
worried about showing how far away it is from the other parties than
about setting the agenda in our country,” he told the Eldiario.es
newspaper.
“Podemos
is still a new party. It has a 5 million-strong voter base, but
equally, that could be its voter ceiling” — Iván
Redondo, political strategist
Putting it in the
pop culture context he and Iglesias are so fond of, he said: “[W]e’re
like the guy who follows a band and, when it starts to sell loads of
records, he goes back to listening to its earlier sound, which people
didn’t listen to much, but which was more original.”
Iván Redondo, a
political strategist who has advised the PP in the past, believes
Errejón’s plan to occupy the center ground is a gamble.
“Podemos is still
a new party,” he said. “It has a 5 million-strong voter base, but
equally, that could be its voter ceiling. If they follow Errejón’s
plan they’ll be playing on the terms and according to the logic of
the traditional parties, which are very powerful in Spain.”
He added: “I don’t
think Podemos is ready to win that battle right now.”
Self destruct
On the ground floor
of an apartment block in Rivas, a working class district on the
southern edge of Madrid, 30 or so people are gathered to discuss the
future of Podemos. The barely furnished room, splashed with the
party’s trademark purple, is regularly used to host meetings of the
local “circle” – one of hundreds of Podemos civic associations
across Spain that are the foundation of its popular support.
On this occasion,
three Podemos politicians from its anti-capitalist wing — a less
influential alternative to the two main clans — have come to talk
about their proposals for the party in the hope of winning votes at
Vistalegre. Many issues are discussed — austerity, evictions,
women’s rights — but the Iglesias-Errejón feud casts a shadow.
“Podemos wasn’t
something that was born in the corridors of the Complutense
University,” Jacinto Morano, a young deputy for the party in the
Madrid regional assembly, told those present. “It has many more
voices than the two that we always hear.”
Being removed from
the two main rival factions, Morano spoke freely and at times,
humorously, insisting that the upcoming assembly is about more than
“deciding between Mummy and Daddy, deciding who is prettier, Pablo
or Íñigo.”
One woman, seated in
the front row, told the visiting politicians: “I’m thinking of
not voting at all [this weekend], after watching the fight between
the so-called ‘friends.’”
But there is also a
more general air of frustration in the room — that Podemos has
failed to deliver on its early promise.
“People are more
active now, they understand that politics affects you throughout your
life,” Concha Vilches, a 58-year-old civil servant and Podemos
supporter, told POLITICO after the meeting. “People have become
mobilized and this party has channeled that. But what is happening
now, unfortunately, we’ve seen it all before.”
She is referring to
the Spanish left’s tendency to fracture or self-destruct. The PSOE
split into warring factions during its 14 years in government under
Felipe González. In the mid-1990s, meanwhile, the communist-led IU
ganged up in opposition with the right-wing PP against González’s
Socialists — a move widely believed to have alienated many
traditional left-leaning voters.
Errejón
insists he is not seeking to replace his former friend as leader. But
Iglesias has promised to step aside if his proposals are defeated.
During the meeting
in Rivas, Vilches got into a heated discussion with the politicians,
berating them for Podemos’ failure to reach out to the PSOE and
form a leftist coalition government last year. “You can’t change
things from the outside,” she told them. “And you’ll never be
on the inside unless you’re prepared to make a pact with other
parties.”
This weekend,
Podemos will try to decide how it moves forward: as an overtly
leftist party of protest, mobilizing Spaniards on the streets and
disrupting the traditional powers, as Iglesias envisions; or as a
more conventional force, trying to win over moderate voters and
seeking to bring about change from within parliament and other
institutions, as Errejón hopes.
Errejón insists he
is not seeking to replace his former friend as leader. But Iglesias
has promised to step aside if his proposals are defeated and there is
a growing feeling that the upcoming assembly will be much more about
the leadership than the many other issues due to be debated.
“The collaborative
leadership, which was born in Vistalegre I, has finished,” said
Redondo, the political strategist. “Vistalegre II is going to be a
referendum: Yes or no to Iglesias?”
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