Iñigo Errejón: "Politics is a very tough sport"

The leader of Más País, Iñigo Errejón, has defended that the departure from politics of Pablo Iglesias, his old friend and party partner, is not a failure of United We Can (UP).

"Politics is a very tough sport," he said this Thursday in an interview on Cadena SER.

“[Podemos] was a project that did not reach its fundamental objectives.

We had important differences that I think are noticeable today in the way of making policies, but it is not a failure ”.

Errejón has once again valued the figure of Iglesias, as he did this Wednesday before the media in Congress. “It is unequivocal that Pablo has been a decisive figure in the political change in Spain. He deserves all the respect and all the tranquility that they have not allowed him to have until now ”, he summarized. Iglesias, who left the second vice-presidency of the Government to stand in the Madrid elections, announced on the night of March 4 that he was leaving politics, after elections in which Más País surpassed United We Can in the Madrid Assembly with 24 seats in front to 10 representatives.

Now, with the success of the Más Madrid candidate, Mónica García - who has tied 24 seats with the PSOE, but has surpassed him in votes - Más País and its allied parties in other areas of Spain, such as Compromís, are studying the possibility to extend its formula throughout Spain. Errejón is optimistic: “Manuela Carmena and I took the first step in 2019 and today it shows that it is a consolidated force, with a long journey ahead. That many people felt represented by what we said and how we said it ”.

The leader of Más País has hinted during the interview that his formation could be presented to the next elections in Andalusia. Errejón has assured that a progressive Andalusianism is re-emerging, but has left the decision in the hands of the militants. “If there were elections in Andalusia, the comrades would have to see if we attended and with whom we attended. One of those actors are Kichi [José María González, mayor of Cádiz] and Teresa Rodríguez, but it is a decision that would have to be made by the colleagues there, ”he insisted.

In October 2020, Más País started in Andalusia with former Podemos senator Esperanza Gómez at the helm. The formation led by Errejón was presented together with Equo in four Andalusian provinces ―Granada, Cádiz, Málaga and Seville― in the last general elections and although it was the sixth most voted force in the region, with 58,000 votes, they did not obtain Andalusian representatives in the Congress. On that occasion, the candidacy was put together quickly, with little time to organize. With regard to the electoral advance in Andalusia, Errejón has been cautious: “We are going to see where the electoral drums are left. I don't think elections are necessary in Andalusia ”.

On a possible rapprochement between United We Can and More Country after the departure of Iglesias, Errejón has limited himself to saying that the only thing they ask the Executive is to put the batteries.

“We ask the Government to face the repeal of the labor reform and the

gag law.

If he puts the batteries, he knows that he has our necessary support ”.

Following this same line, he has criticized that the PP candidate, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, called elections in Madrid: "Many accounts have been paralyzed due to these elections and within two years they will vote again."

Errejón has called Ayuso's call "operation of arrogance" because he wanted to change partners.

"I wanted to kill Ciudadanos," he assured.

Reconfiguration of the political space

The leader of Más País has indicated that his training is starting to work already by 2023 and believes that a new reconfiguration of the political space in Madrid is opening: “The witness and the responsibility of the opposition to Ayuso is Más Madrid. We want to continue in Spain with a green impulse ”. And he added: "Practically a year ago no one listened to us in Congress and now our voice is heard."

Errejón launched Más Madrid together with the former mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, in the Madrid regional and municipal elections of 2019. After the electoral call of May 26 of that year, the new formation obtained 20 seats in the Madrid Assembly. In the last general elections, Más País could only run in 18 provinces and won only two seats in Madrid, largely due to the popular pull of former mayor Carmena. Then he did not get to make a candidacy neither in the autonomous regions of Catalonia, nor in Euskadi, nor in Galicia.

The leader of Más País recalled that he is at the antipodes of Ayuso's ideas, but that "when the opponent beats you" it is because he has done something well and has "interpreted the best moment", and that is why it is necessary to reflect on the strategy and management of each instead of attacking. Errejón has responded so bluntly to whoever was his partner in the purple formation, the founder Juan Carlos Monedero, who this Wednesday expressed a controversial reflection: "Those who earn 900 euros and vote for the right do not seem like Einstein to me," said Monedero. “Let's not insult the people we want to govern. Let us persuade rather than scold ”, Errejón has recommended.