Juan Carlos Monedero
How important has your experience in Latin America been for building PODEMOS?
We also learned from Latin America that it was no longer productive to speak in terms of Left and Right. The only people who still understood the world in those terms were party members and academics. Latin America taught us that, if we wanted to build new majorities, we had to do away with that framework. This also meant that we had to define those majorities beyond the working class. Of course, it’s not that the working class does not exist. If on any day, in any of our countries, the workers would not show up at their jobs, the whole system would collapse. But 40 years of neoliberalism have skewed perceptions. The working class does not exist if it doesn’t think of itself as working class. An enormous segment of the population does not understand the world and themselves in the Left’s traditional political terms. We realized that we had to communicate with the people in a language that the people understood.
The neoliberal model has been so successful because it has convinced us that there is no alternative. And it has been able to do so because we have delegated politics to the politicians. PODEMOS urges the people to take back the reins of politics. We say: “Look, this is the situation. It’s not pretty. It’s complicated, and all the tools we have are our own hands. So we better get working. Will you join?” And as it turns out, if you place your trust in the people, they will place their trust in you.
The PODEMOS team celebrates its May election result.
Yours is a different kind of populism.
PODEMOS is not afraid to speak of Spain as a nation that should fight to regain its sovereignty. Is it possible to change things in Spain without changing Europe?
Iglesias pide "respeto" a Yolanda Díaz y le recuerda la "generosidad" de Podemos
- "No hay discurso más reaccionario que el que dice que el problema son los partidos", asegura el exvicepresidente del Gobierno
- Podemos clausura su Universidad de Otoño, un acto con el objetivo de rearmarse de cara al ciclo electoral
