Spanish elections and politics

[Beezer]

Scholarly text on Ciudadanos, in case anyone's interested: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13608746.2015.1119646

[Beezer]

Any reason for the recent Podemos spike?

[Beezer]

Rajoy punched by random guy on the street. Spanish Secret Service apparently asleep at the wheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3VwLjHG2LM8

[Beezer]

Having read a bit about Podemos now, it is interesting to see their approach to politics as a leftist party that eschews a traditional leftist worldview and appeals to the "working class" in favor of outright populism and the whole "people vs. elite/caste" narrative that comes with it in order to appeal to a broader segment of the electorare. Of course entering an electoral alliance with the IU and PCE totally goes against that - also in light of the criticism someone like Iglesias has voiced about the orthodox and rigidity of these parties. Were the critical voices within Podemos that objected to this strategy? Or am I just completely misinterpreting their ideological approach?

[Beezer]

With "outright populism" I mean the most basic definition out there, namely the bisection of society into the two groups of "the people" and "the elite" along with the valorization of the former and vilification of the latter.

Errejon is an interesting character because contrary to other leftists he, as you mentioned, wholly embraces the populist label. Of course that's in line with Mouffe and her view that populism can serve as a corrective. I suppose Iglesias is more of a traditional politician whose primary goal is to obtain political power. If that can be achieved by discarding old principles, why not?