Pablo Castaño is a freelance journalist and political scientist. He holds a PhD in Politics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and has written for Ctxt, Público, Regards, and the Independent.
Spain’s center-left prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of the Western leaders most critical of Israel. But words often haven’t translated into action, and rising pro-Palestinian protests are criticizing his government too.
President Emmanuel Macron last week appointed France’s fifth prime minister since the start of 2024. This Thursday’s mass strike suggests that his gambit has done little to settle the country’s political crisis.
Spain’s Vox party typically masks its racism in more palatable rhetoric. But this summer, leading Vox MPs helped incite violence against residents of Maghrebi origin in the Murcia region in Spain.
In the decades after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, many considered the country immunized from the far right. This has been challenged by the rise of Chega, the anti-immigrant party that won almost a quarter of the vote in Sunday’s election.
Rather than ushering in a new era of Latin American unity, Donald Trump’s tariffs, anti-immigrant policies, and withdrawal of humanitarian aid have mostly highlighted its divisions.
Pope Francis brought a limited but desperately needed progressive spirit to the Catholic Church. Under his successor, that spirit is likely to wither.
Gustavo Petro became Colombia’s first left-wing president three years ago. With a hostile Congress threatening his landmark labor reform, he’s scrambling to make sure he’s not its last.
In Spain, rents have risen 74% over the last decade, with even steeper rises in the main cities. The Socialist-led government’s Housing Act has failed to rein in speculation, leaving many working-class Spaniards struggling to pay the bills.
Flash floods in eastern Spain last month killed over 200 people. A massive solidarity effort by ordinary Spaniards helped to clean up devastated villages — and shamed the weak response by local authorities.
In Germany, the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance has scored well in its first electoral tests. Its burial of class politics and imitation of right-wing positions on migration show why its rise isn’t good news for the Left.
A clumsy, short-lived coup last month couldn’t bring Bolivia’s discredited conservative forces back to power. But the divide between Luis Arce and Evo Morales over the legacy of the Movement for Socialism could give those forces a bigger opening.
According to polls for France’s snap election, the far right’s main opponent isn’t Emmanuel Macron but the left-wing New Popular Front. It has to rally working-class voters and show that the social damage of Macron’s rule can be undone.
Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, has plainly declared the war on drugs a bloody failure.
Colombia’s left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, has put environmental justice at the center of his agenda, pairing it with the fight against poverty and inequality.
After a hopeful start in 2022, Gustavo Petro’s leftist Colombian government has run into major obstacles from economic elites. But the powerful mobilizations that brought him to power, paired with parliamentary negotiating, may be able to turn that around.
Colombia’s new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, took office Sunday. His government will face massive challenges in carrying out its promised progressive agenda — but success could help spark similar left insurgents throughout Latin America.
Europe’s rising far right want to make the EU elections a vote on defending national identity. For the socialist left, the elections are about defending the planet itself.
With far-right forces on the rise across Europe, Ada Colau’s progressive administration in Barcelona shows how local government can be a base of resistance.
In the wake of its impressive performance in last year’s presidential campaign, the movement around Jean-Luc Mélenchon has set about establishing a new kind of political organization.
A strong Unidos Podemos showing in Spain's election today would give hope to radical left forces across the continent.