Unidas Podemos (), formerly called Unidos Podemos () and also known in English as United We Can, is a

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

formed by Podemos, United Left, and other

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars conside ...

parties in May to contest the 2016 Spanish general election. The alliance's official pre-agreement was announced on 9 May 2016 after weeks of negotiations. It re-styled to the feminine form of its name ahead of the

April 2019 Spanish general election The April 2019 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 28 April 2019, to elect the 13th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. Fol ...

. Part of the

anti-austerity movement The anti-austerity movement refers to the mobilisation of street protests and grassroots campaigns that has happened across various countries, especially in Europe, since the onset of the worldwide Great Recession. Anti-austerity actions are ...

, it advocates

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are repres ...

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments ( provincial, state, cantonal, territorial, or other sub-unit governments) in a single ...

, and

republicanism in Spain Republicanism in Spain is a political position and movement that holds that Spain should be a republic. There has existed in Spain a persistent trend of republican thought, especially throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, that has ...

. After the

November 2019 Spanish general election The November 2019 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 10 November 2019, to elect the 14th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 265 seats in the Senate. ...

, it formed a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

with the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

History

Background

While campaigning for the

2015 Spanish general election The 2015 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 20 December 2015, to elect the 11th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. At exac ...

, the United Left (IU) promoted the creation of, and later joined, the Now in Common (''Ahora en Común, AeC'') platform, seeking a wide alliance with other left-wing parties. After Podemos rejected invitations to join to what some members of this party called an "acronym soup", heightened after the failure of

Catalunya Sí que es Pot Catalunya Sí que es Pot ( en, "Catalonia Yes We Can", also translated as "Catalonia It Is Possible" or "Yes, Catalonia Can") was a left-wing coalition composed of Podemos, Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV) and United and Alternative Left (E ...

in the 2015 Catalan election, the AeC platform gradually lost momentum: its founding members left the project and the brand name was lost. Eventually, the platform turned into the Popular Unity (IU-UPeC) electoral coalition without having fulfilled its initial aspirations.

Negotiations

From 20 April 2016, Podemos and Popular Unity were reported to be in negotiations to form a joint electoral list for upcoming general election aimed at relegating the

(PSOE) into third place. Leaders from both parties denied that any agreement had been reached, and stated that they "would not do anything until it he new electionwas sure", but confirmed that unofficial talks had begun. More than one hundred intellectuals and artists, including

El Gran Wyoming José Miguel Monzón Navarro (15 May 1955, Madrid), better known as El Gran Wyoming (''The Great Wyoming''), Wyoming or Guayo, is a Spanish television presenter, actor, musician, director and humorist. He graduated in Medicine and was a doct ...

Antonia San Juan Antonia San Juan Fernández (born 22 May 1961) is a Spanish actress, director and screenwriter. Biography She was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. At 19 she went to Madrid, where she started working as a professional theatre actr ...

Carlos Bardem Carlos Encinas Bardem (born 7 March 1963) is a Spanish actor and writer. He is often cast in tough guy roles, if not outright villains. Biography Born in Madrid on 7 March 1963, he is the son of actress Pilar Bardem and brother of actors Mó ...

Fernando Tejero Fernando Tejero Muñoz-Torrero (born 24 February 1967) is a Spanish actor. Among his work, he has acted in multiple films, including ''Football Days'' (2003), for which he won the Goya Award for Best New Actor, and television series like ''Aq ...

, and

Luis Tosar Luis López Tosar (born 13 October 1971) is a Spanish actor and musician from Galicia. He is one of the most recognizable and versatile actors in Spain, best known for performances in films such as '' Cell 211'', '' Take My Eyes'', '' Sleep Tig ...

, signed a manifesto calling for Podemos, IU and their regional alliances to join forces for the coming election. On the other hand, some member parties of IU such as

Open Left OpenLeft was a political blog founded July 9, 2007 by Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers, originally of MyDD, and Mike Lux, a former official in the White House under President Bill Clinton. Covering political and social issues from a progressive stand ...

, led by former IU leader,

Gaspar Llamazares Gaspar Llamazares Trigo (; born 28 November 1957) is a Spanish politician. He was the leader of the leftist coalition Izquierda Unida (IU, ''United Left'') from 2001 to 2008, in the post of General Coordinator. Early years and career Llamaza ...

, were opposed to the alliance from the beginning. Among the supporters of such an alliance was one Podemos' founders, Juan Carlos Monedero—who proposed that both parties should come together under the name "Podemos En Común" (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for ''We Can In Common''). Mayor of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Ada Colau Ada Colau Ballano (; ; born 3 March 1974) is a Spanish activist and politician who is the current Mayor of Barcelona. On 13 June 2015 she was elected Mayor of Barcelona, the first woman to hold the office, as part of the citizen municipalist pla ...

, also voiced her support for such a pact stating "I would see as positive that it could be put together, always with respect", her

En Comú Podem En Comú Podem ( en, "In Common We Can", ECP) is an electoral coalition in Catalonia, originally formed in October 2015 by Unidas Podemos, Barcelona en Comú, Initiative for Catalonia Greens, United and Alternative Left, and Equo, and led by the ...

regional alliance having already seen both parties working together in Catalonia. Valencian Vice President Mònica Oltra had also commented that she would see a Podemos–IU alliance as "good", so as to "make every vote count" and for "six million votes having a correct translation in deputies", in reference to the Spanish electoral system panning IU in the 2015 election. Alberto Garzón y Pablo Iglesias 2016 (cropped)

Alberto Garzón y Pablo Iglesias 2016 (cropped)

By 30 April 2016, both Podemos and IU acknowledged that formal coalition talks had started and that, despite differences over the coalition name and the composition of party lists, with discussions continuing throughout the following week. Concurrently, IU submitted its plan for an alliance with Podemos to a membership vote held on 2–4 May, which received 85% of the vote in favour. Despite the ongoing negotiations on 4 May, Podemos and IU leaders took the coalition between both of their parties for granted, setting the People's Party (PP) as their main electoral rival and seeking to marginalise the PSOE. It was reported that both parties intended to formally announce their alliance during the 5th anniversary of the

15-M Movement The anti-austerity movement in Spain, also referred to as the 15-M Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento 15-M''), and the Indignados Movement, was a series of protests, demonstrations, and occupations against austerity policies in Spain that began ar ...

. On 9 May 2016,

Pablo Iglesias Turrión Pablo Iglesias Turrión (; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish political scientist and former politician. During his political career, he served as Second Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda of the Government ...

of Podemos and

Alberto Garzón Alberto Carlos Garzón Espinosa (; born 9 October 1985) is a Spanish politician and economist, currently the Spanish Minister of Consumer Affairs. He has been a member of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and United Left (''Izquierda Unida' ...

of IU officially announced an alliance between their respective parties, with both leaders symbolically sealing their pact through an embrace at

Puerta del Sol The Puerta del Sol ( English: "Gate of the Sun") is a public square in Madrid, one of the best known and busiest places in the city. This is the centre ('' Km 0'') of the radial network of Spanish roads. The square also contains the famous c ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, landmark of the 15-M movement. The pact guaranteed that 1/6 of the candidates obtained by the coalition—as planned and without including the regional coalitions

, En Marea and

És el moment És el moment (; en, "It is Time"), also named as Compromís–Podemos–És el moment, was an electoral alliance formed by Coalició Compromís and Podemos in November 2015 to contest the 2015 Spanish general election in the Valencian Community. ...

—were to be awarded to IU candidates. In addition, the distinct identity of each party was to be preserved. Podemos, IU and Equo put the alliance up to votes from their respective memberships on 10–11 May, all of which overwhelmingly supported the pact. On 13 May 2016, it was announced that the alliance would be named ''Unidos Podemos'', Spanish for United We Can.

Other incorporations

Discussions between Podemos and

Més per Mallorca Més per Mallorca ( en, More for Majorca, MÉS) is a Majorcan political coalition formed by Socialist Party of Majorca (PSM), IniciativaVerds (IV) and Entesa per Mallorca (ExM), as well as some small independent, local parties around the island. I ...

(Més) started in the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

by late April ahead of a prospective electoral alliance, aiming at forming a "grand coalition of the left" in the islands. Despite initial disagreements over Més's place in the Congress lists, both parties finally reached an agreement on 13 May 2016 to run together in the Balearics under the "Units Podem Més" label (Catalan for ''United We Can More''). Earlier on 11 May 2016, Navarrese party

Batzarre Batzarre ( en, Assembly) is a political party in Navarre, Spain. It has a branch in the Basque Autonomous Community known as Zutik. It bids to win the political space to the left of the Basque nationalists and the Spanish socialists, the latter e ...

—from 2011 within the

Izquierda-Ezkerra __NOTOC__ Izquierda-Ezkerra (I-E) is a coalition in the constituency of Navarre, Spain. It was established in January 2011 after Batzarre split from the Nafarroa Bai coalition. Batzarre accepted United Left of Navarre's call to form a coalition a ...

alliance with IU in

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

—had voted for joining the Podemos–IU alliance. That same day, For a Fairer World (''Por un Mundo más Justo, PUM+J''), which had previously participated in left-wing alliances such as

Ahora Madrid Ahora Madrid ( en, Madrid Now) was a citizen platform of popular unity, formed as an ''instrumental party without organic internal life'', in order to stand for the municipal elections of 2015 in the city of Madrid. For this project, '' Gane ...

, had announced its intention to join the alliance with 61% of its members favouring the pact. Also joining the alliance was Zaragoza in Common (ZEC), the municipal alliance created for the 2015 municipal election in the city of

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...

and which went on to win the city's government.

2016 general election

The results of the alliance between Podemos and IU were "highly disappointing" as Pablo Iglesias said the electoral night, however, the alliance itself was called 'the right path'. Unidos Podemos got 71 seats, the same as in December, losing near 1.1 million votes.

2019 general elections

In the

, the party lost 29 seats and fell to the 4th place in the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

, below Ciudadanos. In the

, the party lost 7 more seats, falling in 4th place, this time below Vox. It entered a coalition government with the

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

2019 European Parliament election

On 26 May 2018, Podemos announced that the name of the coalition for the

2019 European Parliament election in Spain The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, as part of the EU-wide election to elect the 9th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Lisbon were up for election.: Once the U ...

would be ''Unidas Podemos cambiar Europa'' ("United We Can Change Europe").

Composition

Ideology

The alliance is mostly dominated by the left-wing Podemos, but there is also farthest left factions, mostly arising from the United Left (IU) political coalition. Podemos is the only mainstream party that is seriously questioning the role of the monarchy and the Spanish constitution as it stands. Party leader

wants Catalonia to continue as part of Spain, but says his party would respect the will of the 80% of Catalans who want a referendum according to polls. The party has called for the release of jailed Catalan leaders on trial in Spain's Supreme Court. It is a coalition of other leftist parties, but the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

(PCE) is the only member party that still runs at the national level. Podemos presented a collaboratively written program for the

2014 European Parliament election in Spain The 2014 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 25 May 2014, as part of the EU-wide election to elect the 8th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Lisbon were up for election. The People ...

. Some of the most important policies were emphasis on public control,

poverty reduction Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics ...

, and social dignity via a basic income for everyone, including

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, whic ...

controls and punitive measures against

tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdi ...

by large corporations and multi-national organizations, as well as promotion of smaller enterprises. It also included revoking or curtailing the

Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member s ...

, abandoning the memorandum of understanding, withdrawing from some

free-trade area A free-trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers, import quotas and tariffs, and ...

agreements, and promoting

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...

on any major constitutional reform. On environmentalism, it advocated reduction of

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

consumption, promotion of

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

and

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

initiatives, reduction of industrial

cash crop A cash crop or profit crop is an agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") in subsist ...

agriculture, and stimulating

local food Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system. Local food (or "locavore") movements aim to con ...

production by

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...

. The PCE is the main member of the United Left. In its

statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...

s, the PCE defines its goals as "democratically participate in a revolutionary transformation of society and its political structures, overcoming the capitalist system and constructing

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

in the Spanish State, as a contribution to the transition to socialism worldwide, with our goals set in the realization of the emancipating ideal of

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

". In 2021, Unidas Podemos supported a motion by

Más País Más País, or More Country, is a political party in Spain. It was an electoral platform formed by Íñigo Errejón around Más Madrid in order to contest the November 2019 Spanish general election. The party is positioned on the left-wing of t ...

to legalise the recreational use of cannabis in Spain.

Electoral performance

Cortes Generales

European Parliament

Regional parliaments

Symbols

File:Unidas Podemos Cambiar Europa (wordmark).svg, Campaign logo, 2019 European Parliament election File:Logo Unidas Podemos.svg, Official logo, 2019–present File:Logo Unidas Podemos 2019b.png, Campaign logo, 2019 general elections File:Unidas Podemos (B-N) - Abril 2019.svg, Ballot logo, April 2019 general election File:Logo Unidos Podemos.svg, Official logo, 2016–2019 File:Unidos Podemos.svg, Electoral logo, 2016 general election File:Unidos Podemos (B-N).svg, Ballot logo, 2016 general election File:Isotipo Unidos Podemos.svg, Campaign logo, 2016 general election

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unidos Podemos 2016 establishments in Spain Left-wing politics in Spain Podemos (Spanish political party) Political parties established in 2016 United Left (Spain)