“Tick-tock, tick-tock” Pablo Iglesias, then leader Podemosimplying that the time for her “old political establishment” is ticking down. Spain. Today, almost a decade after the “Indignant” movement from which “Podemos” “grew”, and after a tumultuous course of electoral victories and defeats, folds, splits, ideological and political “turns” and leadership changes, time seems to be counting down for Podemos himself. For a party that undertook a “raid into the sky”, as its former slogans said, which remained unfinished and which today, due to the critical May 28 municipal elections in Spain are experiencing a – perhaps existential – crisis.

“Battle” in the elections to self-government

The polls, which are being conducted in municipalities and in 12 of the country’s 17 regions, are one way or another a key electoral contest for the Socialists’ ruling alliance with Podemos. And this is because by the end of the year the Spaniards will again go to the polls, this time, however, to the parliamentary elections. Socialist Prime Minister Sancheztogether with their progressive and left allies, seeks to preserve “achievements” in self-government, while the centre-right People’s Party and its leader Alberto Newet Feijo give the elections the character of a “referendum”. against the government. In the same time Far Right Vox is trying to secure its political space in local governments as well, by uploading nearly three times as many ballots in the country’s municipalities compared to the 2019 elections.

Podemos in crisis?