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Pablo Iglesias
Photo: Kiko Huesca (es-ES) / imago images / Agencia EFE
The conservative People's Party (PP) triumphs in the early regional elections in the capital region of Madrid.
The loser of the election, however, is the Spanish left leader Pablo Iglesias.
This now wants to withdraw from politics.
He did not want to stand in the way of the renewal of the party leadership of the left-wing alliance Unidas Podemos (UP), said the previous UP Secretary General on Tuesday evening shortly after the election results were announced. He proposed the current labor minister of the central government of the socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, Yolanda Díaz, as the new party leader.
The 42-year-old political scientist Iglesias achieved a disappointing result as UP's top candidate on Tuesday.
His party was able to improve by three to ten seats in the regional parliament, but only finished fifth.
A significantly better result was expected from Iglesias, who recently made his post as deputy head of the central government available to run in Madrid.
"Today's result shows that I can no longer help our movement to consolidate its institutional strength over the next few years," he said.
Conservative PP doubled their earnings
In contrast, the ruling conservative People's Party (PP) achieved a remarkable triumph in the elections.
The party of Prime Minister and top candidate Isabel Díaz Ayuso won 65 of the 136 seats in the Madrid regional parliament in the vote on Tuesday, doubling its 2019 result, as the electoral authority announced late in the evening after more than 98 percent of the votes were counted.
Pablo Manuel Iglesias Turrión made a name for himself in Spain in the crisis years 2011 and 2021 as a young activist of the social protest movement "Movimiento 15-M".
In spring 2014, he and fellow campaigners founded the Podemos (We Can) party, which later merged with the more traditional Izquierda Unida (United Left) party to form the Unidas Podemos alliance.
asc / dpa