A SPANISH “YES, WE CAN!” AGAINST THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PARTY PODEMOS Guillermo López García Department of Theory of Language & Communication Sciences DOI: 10.20901/an.13.06 Faculty of Philology, Translation & Communication University of Valencia Prethodno priopćenje E-mail: [email protected] Primljeno: listopad 2016. Summary This article develops an analysis of the internal functioning of the Spanish party Podemos and its structural make-up. The used methodology con- sists of: 1) a descriptive analysis of the development of Podemos, based on the available information in the media; 2) an analysis centered on the presence of Po- demos in social networks and the mainstream media, in addition to electoral re- sults and polls. The analysis attempts to determine the following: the party’s deci- (1) 83–99 (2016) 13 sion-making process, along with the type of relationships established between , leaders and supporters; to what extent the Internet is used as a primary tool for or- Anali ganization, mobilization and political propaganda; and the extent of the clash or harmony within the interparty’s dynamics: on one hand, the bottom-up structure of the citizen assemblies and, on the other, the top-down structure inferred from Pablo Iglesias’s hyper-leadership and the media presence of the party’s principal leaders.1 Keywords Podemos, European Elections, New Media, Spanish Politics, Political Populism Introduction1 began in 2007. As in other southern Eu- ropean countries, the introduction of Spain is one of the countries hardest the Euro led to considerable debts both hit by the global economic crisis that in the public and private sectors. In Spanish “yes, we can!” against the two-party system, can!” we “yes, Spanish Spain, this debt revolved around a A 1 This study has been realized under the rese- “building craze” that spurred the con- arcía, G arch project Communication flows in proce­ . struction of many housing and public L . sses of political mobilization: the media, blogs works projects. However, the real estate and opinion leaders (MEDIAFLOWS) (2014- 2016), funded by the Spanish Ministry of bubble burst as a result of the crisis and Economy and Competitiveness (Ref. CSO2013- caused severe social and economic con- G 83 43960-R). sequences. The economic situation has been ac- demos, is, at first glance, a type of hybrid companied by a rapid deterioration of that takes from both sides of the spec- the political climate in Spain, stemming trum. Podemos feeds off of populist from a decline in the credibility of politi- rhetoric and practices, as does M5S, but cians and representatives from major at the same time clearly traces its roots to national institutions. As a result, voters leftist parties in the political sphere, as have punished the country’s two main does Syriza. The first time that Podemos political parties: the socialist PSOE party candidates appeared in an election, dur- that governed from 2004-2011, and the ing the 2014 European Elections, they conservative Partido Popular (PP). How- achieved good results: around 8% of the ever, public polls that, as of very recently total votes cast and 5 seats in the Euro- (2012) showed a sharp decline in credi- pean Parliament. These are excellent bility amongst political parties and tra- numbers for a new political party (Pode- ditional political figures, for years did mos was founded in January 2014, the not show electoral consequences stem- same year as the aforementioned elec- ming from negative public opinion. This tions), that barely had the means to run is partially due to the inability of the an electoral campaign and mainly relied major alternative parties (which are more on the media presence of its leader, Pab- lo Iglesias. or less also considered traditional par- ties) to attract votes. This led to a signifi- The emergence of Podemos was a cant portion of the electorate abstaining real shock to Spanish politics, despite from voting altogether. the perplexing fact that, for years, Span- ish society was apparently unable to Opposition to traditional politics create successful alternatives capable of clearly manifested itself in the emergence entering the political sphere. However, of the indignados movement on May 15th this was not all that changed in the 2014 2011 (15M movement). Protestors align- European Elections. In addition, the PP ed with this movement occupied public and PSOE obtained a combined 49% of squares in the largest Spanish cities for the vote total; the first time in the history several weeks, and undoubtedly brought of the two-party system, which has tra- about changes in the political agenda ditionally been very strong in Spain, that (Casero-Ripollés and Feenstra, 2012). they failed to earn at least 50% of the Traditional political parties even recom- ballots cast (see graph 1). mended that 15M activists form an offi- The day after the elections took cial political party if they really wanted place, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the head to effect change, but 15M never became of PSOE, resigned as a consequence of a full-fledged political movement. Many his party’s poor returns, the lowest in its people wondered how it was possible history (23% of the votes). The following that no new electoral option appeared week, King Juan Carlos I, whose popu- on their ballots, in the same vein as Syr- larity had significantly withered, an- iza in Greece or Beppe Grillo’s MoVi- nounced his decision to abdicate the mento 5 Stelle (M5S) in Italy, to channel throne and proclaim his son Felipe the the people’s dissatisfaction and benefit nali Hrvatskog društva 2016 politološkog new king. Over the next few months, from the obvious crisis affecting the po- polls showed increasing support for Po- litical system. demos, so large that they showed a A Curiously, the party that would three-way tie with PP and PSOE, the 84 emerge as this alternative, known as Po- powerhouses in Spain’s two-party system. Graph 1. Percentage of the vote earned by the two major Spanish political parties in European Parliament Elections, 1987-2014. Source: Boix and López (2014) This is the context that we wish to public opinion: media outlets, public analyse in the upcoming sections of this opinion polls, social protests, and of article. We hope to study the evolution course elections. of Podemos, from its beginnings to the The research methodology applied current day, its strategies and ideological here is in line with these two goals and (1) 83–99 (2016) 13 roots, the organization of its internal combines two main parameters: a quan- , structures, its relationship with its sup­­ titative data analysis (election results, Anali porters, and finally, what the numbers opinion polls, rallies, social media pres- and figures tell us. ence, information released through me- dia outlets, etc.); and a qualitative analy­­ Purpose of the study and methodology sis of speeches and strategies utilized by Podemos during interviews, conferences We believe that interest in Podemos and discussion groups organized by re- is undeniable. Podemos is the first polit- search group Mediaflows2 with various ical party since 1982 that has threatened representatives from Podemos. The the dominance of the Spanish two-party com bination of this particular material system. We are concerned with deter- with academic articles already published mining the main elements to be includ- will allow us to establish more clearly ed in our analysis, whose structure is our research goals outlined previously. based primarily on two goals. First is the study of the organizational structure of against the two-party system, can!” we “yes, Spanish Podemos, its ideological framework, Podemos: origins, strategies A and its political and media strategies. and operation arcía, G . That is to say, everything that categorizes L . Podemos as a political party. Second is Podemos was “born” on January th to analyse the path that Podemos has 17 , 2014 when various leftist political taken during its first year in existence, as G 85 well as its impact on various aspects of 2 For details see www.mediaflows.es activists, primarily based in Madrid The concept of political participa- (specifically from the political science tion and activism through the media did department of the Complutense Univer- not originate with Podemos, but its ef- sity of Madrid, where Podemos’s leader- fectiveness was corroborated by the Po- ship originated) published a manifesto. demos experience. In 2010, a television Pablo Iglesias, the undisputed leader of program called La Tuerka was created the party, Íñigo Errejón, second-in-com- that consisted of political discussions mand and chief political strategist, and moderated by Pablo Iglesias. The pro- Juan Carlos Monedero, Podemos’s third gram aired weekly on various local tele- highest member,3 all had established vision stations in Madrid, and also their academic careers in this depart- reach­­ed a wider audience through inter- ment. Other important leaders in the net broadcast. Many future leaders of young party include Carolina Bescansa, Podemos gained invaluable experience head of electoral analysis and polls, and from their participation on La Tuerka, Luis Alegre. Almost all of these figures learning how to handle themselves in have a long history of political activism front of the cameras and especially how and are often linked to progressive pop- to debate on television against individu- ulist governments in Latin America, als who represented ideologies opposed particularly that of Hugo Chávez in Ven- to their own. This constituted an essen- ezuela (Rivero, 2015: 82-88). tial learning experience for Podemos The founding of Podemos also has leaders in terms of situating themselves much to do with two other phenomena in the conceptual framework of media- that took place. Firstly, there was the in- tized politics, in which television plays ability of the leftist political bloc, Izqui- the most important role.