Will Pablo Iglesias ever return to politics? Key ex-colleague gives his views

FORMER deputy president of Spain Pablo Iglesias gave up politics completely within hours of his party's losing the May 4 regional elections in Madrid – but one of his key ex-colleagues thinks his bowing out is only a temporary measure.

Despite having chopped off his trademark ponytail a week later – having 'lived' with it for 25 of his 42 years – which an expert in non-verbal language considered to be a way of 'cutting off' from his past life, it seems that once a politician, always a politician.

Left-wing Unidas Podemos, the socialists' (PSOE's) coalition partners in national government, failed to make a dent in Madrid's regional leadership and even if it had joined forces with its breakaway group Más Madrid and the PSOE, the left would not have amassed enough seats to oust the right-wing PP, meaning the latter's leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso will be in power for another four years.

Pablo Iglesias, who started out life as part of the massive grass-roots campaign group '15-M', named after their first camp-out and sit-in in central Madrid on May 15 a decade ago, later created what was then Podemos – a name that means 'we can' in Spanish – as a small cluster of activists meeting regularly in a borrowed garage in the capital, whilst he was living in a rented flat with his dog and working as a university tutor for a take-home salary of just €900 a month.

Within record time, Podemos had exploded onto the political scene: It won five seats in the European Parliamentary elections of 2014, including one for Pablo Iglesias, which he gave up in order to run for Spanish national government, joining forces with United Left (Izquierda Unida).

Rebranding firstly as Unidos Podemos, translating as 'United We Can', the party, which hovered between third- and fifth-largest political outfit in Spain, later changed its name as a nod to its feminist principles – the 'United' part became 'Unidas', the female version of the adjective; normally, in the Latin languages, the feminine of a noun or adjective is only ever used where all those referred to are girls or women since, if there is a presence of just one male, the masculine is employed instead, but Pablo Iglesias' outfit wanted to defy what it considered an outdated linguistic convention.

Unidas Podemos did not formally enter government until November 2019, despite having been in national Parliament for the past four years – it formed a coalition with the PSOE, led by Pedro Sánchez, in an urgent bid to accrue enough seats to keep the far-right out.

The reverse journey of this rags-to-riches tale for Pablo Iglesias began in April, when he announced he would be running for presidency of the Greater Madrid region, knowing he would have to resign from his rôle as national leader Sánchez's second-in-command as he would not be permitted, under Spanish law, to stand for a regional election whilst also being in central government.

And when this decision backfired, Iglesias bowed out – and so did his ponytail.

Unidas Podemos remains, is still in coalition in national government, and in fact, Pablo Iglesias' wife Irene Montero – who started out as a party colleague in the early years and, after media rumours that they were 'getting along rather well', eventually became the mother of his three small children – is Spain's equality minister, the youngest on a largely female-dominated cabinet at barely 33 years old.

Iglesias' departure does not mean the end of the party; in fact, it gives it an opportunity to 'evolve', 'rebrand' and 'renew itself', according to Juan Carlos Monedero, one of the founder members along with Pablo from the days of the borrowed garage in Madrid.

He expressed this opinion during a meeting with subscribing party members in Catalunya.

“For [Unidas] Podemos, it's true that we've been shot by firing squad – but rather like what happened with Gila, they missed,” he joked.

“They've just shot the commander instead.

“I've been in contact with [Pablo Iglesias] recently, and he'll be back – in another place and position, but he'll be back.”

Monedero concluded by urging the membership to 'recover their joy and illusion for territorial sensitivity and the Republic' – it is not clear whether he meant the 'Republic of Catalunya' around 44% of the north-eastern region's residents surveyed dream of, or whether he was alluding to a future Spain without a monarchy – and to put their trust in Ione Belarra, the woman elected as leader of Unidas Podemos after Iglesias left national government.

What did Monedero mean with the 'Gila' joke?

Gila is Miguel Gila Cuesta, a Spanish TV comedian who died in 2001 aged 82 from a respiratory illness.

Born in March 1919, Gila, one of the Unified Socialists' Youth party, enlisted as a volunteer Republican soldier in the Civil War, fighting against the fascist régime of future dictator General Franco.

Being on the wrong side meant facing a firing squad was an occupational hazard with very high probabilities of becoming a reality, and Gila was no exception – but it was booze that saved his life.

As well as being at night, and raining, which probably contributed to the outcome, the executioners were drunk - and missed.

Gila threw himself down and played dead; the executioners fell for it, and he got away. 

His exact words in his memoirs were those used by Monedero when addressing his membership: “We were shot by firing squad, but they missed.”