Spanish left’s ultimatum to Sánchez: “Cease relations with Israel or we leave government”

Brussels – As the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East continues to worsen, the Spanish left is pointing the finger at one of Europe’s few remaining socialist prime ministers, Pedro Sánchez, accusing him of not doing enough to distance his government from the military escalation wanted by Israel and, domestically, of not taking sufficiently incisive measures to contrast the housing crisis.

For days now, the secretary of the far-left Podemos party, Ione Belarra, has been targeting the centre-left government of Premier Pedro Sánchez, leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and head of the executive since 2018. Last Saturday (Oct. 19), she declared that Podemos no longer considers itself an organic part of the coalition executive but that her party’s support will have to be negotiated from time to time. When the third Sánchez government took office in November 2023, the party was in coalition with Sumar, the other main formation of the Spanish radical left, which is currently PSOE’s only majority partner. Last December, Podemos “divorced” Sumar while still guaranteeing the external support of its four deputies to the centre-left executive (which stands, not to collapse, on a number of smaller forces, including the Catalan and Basque independentists) and which has a slim majority of 179 deputies out of the required 176.

However, over time, Podemos has become increasingly stinging in his criticism of the government, which he considers too unambitious in defending the most vulnerable sections of society. In exchange for voting in favour of the budget bill for 2025, Belarra has asked thus to break diplomatic and trade relations with Israel (branded a “genocidal state”) and to implement drastic measures to address the housing crisis gripping the country, such as a legal lowering of the cost of rent by 40 per cent, a ban on the purchase of non-residential housing, and the dismantling of groups such as Desokupa (called a “squad commando”), which use coercive methods to evict illegally occupied properties.

On Monday (Oct. 21), it kicked it up a notch, announcing that it will let its electoral base express itself through a consultation that will open on Tuesday and close on Oct. 27. Belarra criticized the PSOE as “corrupt” and accused it, as well as former Equality Minister Irene Montero, of pursuing policies similar to those of the centre-right Partido Popular (PP), especially in certain areas such as the management of migration flows. The co-founder of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, has called for unity among all parliamentary forces to the left of the PSOE to force the premier to break relations with the Jewish state.

Podemos/i> is trying to revive the radical left even at the European level, calling on the various formations of this political galaxy to join forces because “together we can change everything, even stop” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose disproportionate response to the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks he criticizes. The two MEPs from Podemos have recently merged into the newly born European party, the European Left Alliance for Planet and People (ELA), an offshoot of The Left.