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Eoghan Gilmartin is a writer, translator, and Jacobin contributor based in Madrid.
Spain’s congress has voted in Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez for a new term as prime minister. His pact with left-wing Sumar and Catalan parties has withstood far-right violence — but must still overcome resistance from conservative activist judges.
After an inconclusive election, Spain’s broad-left coalition can only stay in power with Catalan parties’ help. It’s ready to negotiate an amnesty for Catalan nationalists — but the idea is creating an intense backlash from right-wing activist judges.
Spain’s election didn’t produce the expected right-wing landslide — and offers the Socialists and left-wing Sumar another chance to govern. To form a majority, they’ll need to assemble a wider coalition, based on remaking Spain’s democratic institutions.
Yolanda Díaz’s left-unity Sumar platform is gaining momentum, countering far-right Vox’s rise in the final stretch before today’s election. Left-wing unity and mobilization are crucial to fend off the possibility of a reactionary wave.
A decade ago, Spain was often cited as a rare European country without far-right MPs. But polls for Sunday’s election suggest the Franco-nostalgist Vox party is about to enter national government, after years building its influence over mainstream conservatives.
Spanish deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz has hailed a unity deal that will see the Left run together in July’s snap election. The deal hasn’t pleased everyone — but it could help keep the far right from power.
After gains for the Right in Sunday’s local and regional contests, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election. Yolanda Díaz’s left-wing Sumar project can get a good result — but only if the Left can overcome its damaging splits.
Spain’s labor minister, Yolanda Díaz, is a Communist — and her success restoring workplace protections has made her the country’s most popular politician. Now her new electoral platform Sumar is trying to use that popularity to revitalize the Spanish left.
Labor minister Yolanda Díaz is Spain’s most popular politician — and her new Sumar electoral vehicle promises to greatly expand the Left’s support. But the project remains marred by infighting, with strained relations between Díaz and her Podemos allies.
For over 40 years since the return of Spanish democracy, the rulings of Franco-era political courts still criminalized those who resisted the dictatorship. Now, the country’s new Democratic Memory Law has finally cleared the names of the anti-fascist prisoners.
In June, police killed at least 37 people at the Moroccan-Spanish border at Melilla. Spain’s main parties have voted against an official inquest into the massacre — exposing the hollowness of the center-left government’s “progressive” credentials.
On Friday, Moroccan police murdered at least 37 migrants at the border with Spain. The massacre shows how the European Union relies on authoritarian regimes to police its borders — and the shallowness of the Spanish government’s “progressive” image.
Last Sunday’s elections in Spain’s Andalusia region saw conservatives and the far right hit historic highs. The left-wing parties in the national government each fared poorly — they need to do more to bring material benefits to working-class voters.
Western Sahara is Africa’s last colony, and its citizens live under a brutal occupation. The Biden administration and its counterparts in Europe are set to cement that reality for generations to come.
New legislation in Spain will ensure free, publicly provided abortions and allow menstrual leave from work. The raft of measures shows left-wing party Unidas Podemos’s strong feminist stance — but faces obstruction from the country’s hard-right judiciary.
Western Sahara is Africa’s last colony, and its citizens live under a brutal, US-backed occupation. If we support self-determination for Ukrainians, we should also support it for the people of Western Sahara.
The European Union’s pivot away from Russian fossil fuels is being sold as part of the green energy transition. Yet the plan’s reliance on imports from Morocco and occupied Western Sahara shows how it is driving a new kind of green colonialism.
Since becoming Unidas Podemos leader last April, Spanish labor minister Yolanda Díaz has broken the populist party out of its rut. She’s won concrete gains for organized labor through her government post — showing how the Left can reconnect with the working class.
Podemos MP Alberto Rodríguez has been stripped of his seat in Congress following an unjustified assault conviction. His removal shows how a Supreme Court packed with right-wing judges is undermining Spain’s basic democratic standards.
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.