{"id":70430,"date":"2016-03-07T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=70430"},"modified":"2016-03-07T02:12:37","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T02:12:37","slug":"spains-radical-left-podemos-party-refuses-to-sell-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/03\/spains-radical-left-podemos-party-refuses-to-sell-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s Radical Left Podemos Party Refuses to Sell Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Mar 2016 – <\/em>American progressives distressed about the prospect of being offered a choice this fall between a right-wing billionaire<\/a> and a one-time corporate lawyer on the board of Wal-Mart<\/a>, might look to Spain for a reminder that left-wing leaders with principles and charisma do still exist.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Pierre-Philippe Marcou\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

In Madrid on Wednesday, Pablo Iglesias, the 37-year-old leader of Podemos<\/a>, an anti-austerity party formed just two years ago, blocked<\/a> the center-left Socialist Party\u2019s attempt to form a centrist coalition government and demonstrated a flair for political theater that galvanized his supporters on social networks.<\/p>\n

During an impassioned speech<\/a> to parliament, Iglesias said that his radical left party, which is now Spain\u2019s third largest, would not allow the \u201cmiserable\u201d leader of the more mainstream Socialists, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, to become prime minister because he had adopted the economic policies of the right.<\/p>\n

The debate in parliament was closely watched on social networks<\/a>, and the Podemos leader then made his opposition to the proposed government even more clear by leaping from his seat to congratulate a Catalan ally who also spoke against it<\/a> with a bear hug and a kiss on the lips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CPd3E8a_8CQ<\/p>\n

That image, of Iglesias kissing the Catalan representative Xavier Dom\u00e8nech<\/a>, was both celebrated and mocked in Twitter memes<\/a>, as his supporters rejoiced at the sight of the two men kissing directly in front of deputies from the conservative People\u2019s Party \u2014 which recently tried and failed<\/a> to ban gay marriage in Spain \u2014 and his detractors evoked comparisons to Soviet-era kisses between the leaders of communist states.<\/p>\n

Podemos, which means \u201cWe can\u201d in Spanish, has also ruled out forming a coalition with the Socialists and will now be hoping to become the leading party of the left at the next general election, likely to be held in June.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Robert Mackey<\/a> – \u2709robert.mackey@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During an impassioned speech to parliament, Iglesias said that his radical left party, which is now Spain\u2019s third largest, would not allow the \u201cmiserable\u201d leader of the more mainstream Socialists, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, to become prime minister because he had adopted the economic policies of the right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}