Why Pablo Iglesias Withdrew From The Office As Dep. PM

Spain’s deputy PM has suddenly stepped down in the eleventh hour. Pablo Iglesias was a political novice before he emerged to lead the Podemos party. He has left the Left Wing coalition suddenly, and already put forward the name of Employment Minister Yolanda Díaz as his replacement (with Ione Belarra taking over from Díaz at the employment ministry).

The current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has yet to approve these moves. Iglesias instead feels that he could do better to run for the political elections slated for May 2021. There are currently four deputy PM holding positions in the Spanish government.

According to Iglesias, by being a candidate in May to head Madrid’s regional government, he is going to add a new dimension to the leadership, which has been attacked as “criminal” and “Trumpist” for the time being.

 Announcing his decision over a social media video he also said that “I will put all my heart and all my organization’s force into building a strong broad leftist campaign to avoid the far right from taking control of our institutions. If party members want, I will put myself forward in the elections. Madrid needs a government of the left.”

He has had no qualms to suggest that Spain’s communist labour minister Yolanda Díaz should run as Podemos’s candidate in the country’s next general election, due by 2023. Diaz

Spanish government is in chaos already as several regional government alliances have collapsed. This has lead to number of no-confidence motions being filed where other regional governments were built on coalitions between the Citizens and PP, including Madrid.

But amidst all this chaos, Madrid’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso dissolved the executive to prevent a motion of no-confidence and brought forward elections to May 4. She has been seen as the doer. No wonder polls show that Dias Ayuso could seek to return to office repeat in office in coalition with the far-right Vox party. But Pablo Iglesias does not probably want that to happen and therefore he will ask Más Madrid – another left-wing splinter group of Podemos – to promote a single candidate while maintaining independence.