What have the Podemos ever done for us?

The answer is nothing. Yet. Let me start by apologising for the title it was just way too tempting, I can never resist a bad joke…

I don’t vote. I’ve never voted. It’s not because I’m not political, on the contrary I am. My reasoning is that I’ve never found an organised party I considered trustworthy enough to speak for me or reflect, in any significant way, my views.

This morning I met two people who just may be part of a phenomenon causing me to re-think my stance. It’s hard not to have noticed the Podemos if you live here in Spain. If you live in the UK you’ve most likely heard the name in passing via TV the Internet or you morning rag.

The Podemos are an infant of a political party who like UKIP reaped the dividend of the protest vote against the existing political establishment in the recent European elections. Like UKIP, on paper the Podemos are now the third party in Spain, having only formed in January. That swing in voting is where the similarity ends.

Whilst the vote in the UK benefited a bunch of bigoted fools led by a charismatic bigoted old fool, the population here sent out a clear message by voting for a party made up of reasonable people with a social conscience guided, rather than led, by a charismatic and intelligent young man with a vision for different way of doing things.

Today I met with Lucia Ayala and José Francisco Abad. Lucia is a Podemos spokesperson for Almeria, was on the candidates list for the EU elections and is on the national team consisting of 26 individuals from the party on whom the leader and founder Pablo Iglesias is depending to help shape the fledgling party. Her colleague José also works with the Almeria communications team. If first impressions are anything to go by and these two young, energetic, intelligent and compassionate individuals are the kind of people who are going to shape the future of Spain I’m personally encouraged.

I attended this meeting with a whole bunch of questions as to how it, should the Podemos obtain any significant power, might affect us as expats. It quickly became clear that any such ideas are not yet formed. My coffee companions were very careful not to discuss specific policies on almost any level, matters and attitudes towards the items I had on my list of expat issues were instead discussed as personal opinion. Their personal opinions were encouraging if they are an indication on the party’s direction. Being personal opinion I feel it inappropriate to delve into specifics here but I don’t think they’d mind if I took one example by way of an indicator to the thinking process.

Catalunya: both expressed that the will of the people is paramount. Neither of them would like to see Catalunya secede, saying it is not their preferred choice but both wondered if it would have come to the current situation had central government been more prepared to talk about sensible compromise. Equally both agreed that should other regions wish to separate, it is pure and simple that it is for the people who live there to decide their own future. This clearly bodes well for Gibraltar if the party adopts this stance.

What we did talk about at some length was what the party stands for and its attitude to conventional politics. They want change, and so do I. We talked about the need to involve people in the process, to break down the political elite, to create a fair and equitable society where Google and Amazon don’t siphon off the money of a nation and pay fair and reasonable taxation, where small businesses can thrive. A country where every individual can and wants to participate, where the government genuinely cares about the poor, where a ‘career’ in politics isn’t an option, where those in politics can not hold a seat on the board of a company and represent conflicting interests, where there are no ‘jobs for the boys’, where children are taught the truth, where a government simply can’t get away with passing draconian laws, where people who hold positions of influence are actually qualified for the job.

Sounds idealistic? Hell yes it is. But isn’t it a dream worth trying to achieve?

I’d wanted to come away from this meeting with a clear picture of my mind of what the aims of the Podemos were. I didn’t. To be fair, as it was explained to me, which I accept, the party has to move on to the next step and formalise itself. This will come in the autumn when the whole party will get together to agree its ethics, politics and organizational structure and turn those ideals into a constitution and manifesto. The party needs to turn its ideals into a grown up political party ready to fight the next national election.

Can they make an impact?

“They might” just pull it off. I hope so. I’d like to see what they can achieve. Have they got my vote? No, but only because I’m not entitled to vote for the government who spends our taxes. If I could – probably! It’s no small thing for me to admit to that…. For the first time in my life I see a party forming that I could possibly vote for!

Click here to visit the Podemos website

Alan Gandy

Alan, along with Elle, is the owner of Spain Buddy. He was born in the North of England (Lancashire) and travelled extensively before eventually settling in Almería. Alan has 3 sons from the first of his 18 marriages, (Sam, Joe & Ben) who are all now adults. You can read more articles by Alan on his personal blog at AlanGandy.com and see more of his photography on his photography website as well as on Instagram.