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Pablo Iglesias: Spain's deputy prime minister wants to run in the regional elections in Madrid in May
Photo: Manu Fernandez / AP
The head of the left-wing populist Unidas Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, is leaving the Spanish government.
The background to the surprising resignation is the upcoming regional elections in Madrid.
New elections are scheduled for March 4th in the region.
Then Iglesias wanted to compete there against the conservative regional head of government Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said the 42-year-old politician in a video message.
He will give up his government office at the beginning of the election campaign on April 30th.
Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz could be his successor.
Iglesias announced that he would run in the regional elections to campaign for a left-wing government.
"Democracy is threatened by a new right à la Trump," he justified in his video message distributed on Twitter.
"Today it is necessary to oppose this criminal right," he added, referring to the right-wing populist Vox party in particular.
"Spain owes me something, I got Iglesias out of the government"
Iglesias is extremely unpopular in conservative circles.
Ayuso, the head of the regional government, known for polemical statements, who started with the slogan "Freedom or Socialism", reacted to Iglesias' candidacy: "Spain owes me something, I got Iglesias out of the government."
In response to allegations that she was politically too far to the right on the TV broadcaster Telecinco, she had only recently replied: “If they call you a fascist, then you know that you are doing it right, that you are on the right side of the History ”.
Ayuso from the conservative National Party (PP) had scheduled the new election last week after its junior coalition partner, the liberal-conservative party Ciudadanos, ended the coalition with the PP in the Murcia region and, together with the opposition socialists there, submitted a motion of no confidence in the regional head of government PP had brought in.
Ayuso, who, according to media reports, had been flirting with an early election for a long time, said she had to anticipate a motion of censure against her by Ciudadanos and the socialists by scheduling new elections.
According to previous polls, Ayuso can expect votes to win in the May election, but is likely to miss an absolute majority.
The 42-year-old, who is considered by many in Spain to be the bearer of hope for the crisis-ridden People's Party (PP), could therefore become more dependent on Vox in the future.
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asc / dpa / Reuters