“A militant has to be where he or she is most useful at all times.” So ran Unidas Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias’s shock message to supporters this week, announcing he would step down from his role as Spain’s deputy prime minister in order to contest snap regional elections in Madrid.

Through the announcement, he has sought to position himself as the only left-wing candidate able to see off the threat of an explicitly far-right government in the Madrid region. Along with the offer of a joint list with two other forces that previously fell under the Podemos grouping, Iglesias’s tactical pivot from cabinet minister to prospective regional parliamentarian has raised eyebrows even outside Spain. After all, this move comes just fourteen months into a historic left-wing coalition government which he helped broker.

Yet overlooked by some commentators is that Iglesias’s move also signals the beginning of what could be a step back from frontline politics — ushering in a different chapter of his career, and of Podemos’s own evolution.