The European elections in Spain will have a new political party: Izquierda Española. The formation, registered this Tuesday at the Ministry of the Interior, defends the welfare state within the framework of a “unified territorial model” and comes into being after its leader, the lawyer Guillermo del Valle, announced in recent months his incipient project Laboratory of Ideas or Think thanks to El Jacobino . “To defend the rights and freedoms of everyone, regardless of their zip code, we must abolish the privileges granted to nationalists and review the territorial model. Nationalists are the opposite of solidarity,” emphasizes Del Valle in a statement distributed to the media.
According to the text, the new party “proposes an egalitarian alternative from the left to the policies of the current government.” El Jacobino has intensified its actions and presence on social networks after the 23-J general elections and during the PSOE's negotiations with the pro-independence groups regarding the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez. “With the help of nationalists, you cannot make progressive policies for a social majority,” claims Del Valle, who presented his debut work “The Left Betrayed” on November 23rd at the Ateneo de Madrid. Reasons against withdrawing.
Among those who took part in this event were the former general secretary of the Socialist Party Euskadi (PSE), Nicolás Redondo Terreros, who was expelled from the PSOE because of his openly critical theses towards the current leadership; the former vice president and lawyer of the Cortes of Castile and León, Francisco Igea, was also expelled, but from Ciudadanos, because he had opposed the executive; and the former socialist parliament speaker Soraya Rodríguez, now a CS member of the European Parliament.
Both Igea and Rodríguez shared another event with Del Valle in mid-December and both welcomed Izquierda Española this Tuesday via X (formerly Twitter). “New party for progressive, non-nationalist citizens. Defense of equality, social justice and the territorial integrity of the Spanish nation. “Defending the common against precarity and defending a Spain without territorial disintegration,” wrote the MEP. “A new party is being born for those of us who believe that it is not possible to defend freedom, equality and fraternity with those who destroy the nation that makes them possible. A Jacobin party,” added the former vice president of Castilla y León.
Logo of the new Spanish Left Party.
El Jacobino emerged as a YouTube channel during the Covid pandemic, was founded as Think Thank in June 2021 and formalized as a platform in December 2022. Neither Igea, nor Rodríguez nor Redondo Terreros are part of the old platform or the party, although they have expressed their sympathy. The organization's members include the former IU boss Juan Francisco Martín Seco, the finance minister Felipe González and the former Catalan CS MP Sergio Sanz.
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Igea's former party and Rodríguez's current party, Ciudadanos, in turn assure that they will take part in the European elections, despite being practically not represented in the political board and after the leadership decided not to take part in the general elections on July 23rd. “Ciutadans, as a liberal centrist party, can and must defend the value of the political center and freedom in an increasingly polarized and tense Spain,” says Carlos Carrizosa, CS spokesman in the Catalan Parliament, in a video distributed on social media this Tuesday became networks in which he confirmed that there will be a Ciudadanos vote in June. The Secretary General of the formation and CS spokesman in Brussels, Adrián Vázquez, has recently gained more media presence through his opposition to the amnesty for those accused of the trial in the European institutions. But the party's poll numbers are still poor and it will now also compete with Izquierda Española, with which it could share part of its electorate spectrum.
For the leader of the new party, “PP and Vox have clearly demonstrated that they do not care about social issues.” And in this sense, Del Valle adds: “For Spain to become a fairer and more coherent country, it is essential to defend the welfare state, “To reverse the neoliberal policies and the privatization policies and to reform the tax system so that it is fair and progressive and to reset.” On the table are issues such as labor, labor rights, public services, housing or public initiative.”
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