Iglesias re-elected to head Spain’s Podemos

Spain’s anti-establishment party Podemos will continue to be led by hardline leftist Pablo Iglesias as members of the party have preferred him and his strategies for the party over a more mainstream narrative.

More than 89 percent from over 155,000 people voted to re-elect Iglesias as Podemos secretary general during a vote in the party’s congress on Sunday,.

The vote gives the Podemos founder the mandate to head the leadership council of the party, which currently sits third in the Spanish National Congress.

Some 56 percent of the voters also endorsed Iglesias’ far-left vision for Podemos, effectively rejecting a notion advocated by his deputy Inigo Errejon, who believed that the party should take a more mainstream direction to replace the Socialists as Spain's main opposition party and eventually take power in the country.

Podemos gained popularity during protests over Spain’s severe economic crisis in 2014. The party then managed to reach the national-level politics by winning millions of votes in two elections. Podemos currently has 71 seats in the Spanish parliament as part of a wider left-wing coalition. A shock win in Greece in January 2015 for the leftist Syriza, an ally of Podemos, boosted hopes for a similar victory for the far-left in Spain.

SS