Tommy Greene is a freelance journalist and translator based in Madrid.
Over two thousand people have died trying to cross from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands so far this year. While the European Union boasts of its humanitarian migrant policy, it has made these islands into a rampart of a murderous border regime.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has announced his retirement. Over the last decade, he brought the radical left to the heart of Spanish politics — but its challenge to the establishment ultimately fell short.
On Monday, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias announced he is resigning as Spain's deputy prime minister to run for election in the Madrid region. Iglesias's move to regional politics is aimed at blocking the formation of another far-right government in the capital — but it also highlights his own party's need to go beyond relying on one brilliant communicator.
A year into Spain's coalition government, today's budget offers major public health care investment and a commitment to expand the Guaranteed Minimum Income plan. These promises show how Unidas Podemos has changed the political agenda — and yet centrist ministers are still stonewalling on measures that risk upsetting business.
The new government coalition between the PSOE and Podemos is a historic opportunity for the Spanish left. After years of rising nationalist tensions, Podemos can turn the agenda back to the fight against austerity.
After a failed early election gambit, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has finally accepted Podemos into his government. It’s a huge achievement for the Left — and a way to free Spain of its sharpening nationalist tensions.
The clashes in Barcelona reflect intense popular anger at the jailing of Catalan leaders. Since 2017’s disputed referendum, the conflict has appeared increasingly intractable — and as protests become more militant, the pro-independence parties are losing control of events.
The long prison sentences for the organizers of Catalunya’s outlawed independence referendum are just the latest sign of Spain’s repressive turn. The Catalan crisis has brought the state’s authoritarian impulses to the surface — and set a terrible precedent for criminalizing dissent.
The Spanish Socialist Party swept to victory in this Sunday’s general election. Yet the risk of a liberal-centrist government shows the need to do more than just mobilize progressives against the far right.
Polling for today's general election forecasts heavy losses for Podemos. With Spanish politics polarized around the threat from the far right, Pablo Iglesias’s anti-austerity agenda is struggling to make itself heard.
Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez styles himself as the main barrier to Spain’s rising far right. Yet his record as prime minister shows how little he is doing to stop it.
Data theft, spying, fabricated documents. The Spanish state is trying to derail Podemos and its challenge to elites.
This week nine Catalan leaders will be put on trial for sedition. With the 2017 bid for independence thwarted, the Catalan left finds itself more divided than ever.
After years of momentum, the Spanish left has stalled — clearing the way for the dangerous rise of the Franco-nostalgist right.
Podemos’s backing for Spain’s Socialist cabinet risks making it a prop to the institutions it once rebelled against. Yet it has also imposed its own stamp on the government’s agenda.