ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the rise of Podemos, a populist project able to bring the protesters into Spanish institutions. Pablo Iglesias’ party exploited some favourable ‘critical antecedents’, such as the weakness of the Radical Left and of the ‘union-party hub’ led by the Socialists, who were ‘trapped’ in the governmental management of the crisis. The chapter first analyses the organisational, sociological and discursive characteristics of the protest cycle that began with the Indignados’ demonstrations, and then stresses the ability of Podemos’ leaders to ‘own’ and re-launch the frames elaborated by the Spanish protest cycle and to direct them towards an ‘electoral assault’ on the public institutions. Before some concluding remarks, the chapter analyses the determinants of the vote for Podemos, concluding that Podemos mostly remained the ‘party of the Indignados’. Podemos’ project, therefore, was able to mobilise (in terms of both activists and voters) an urban and quite well-educated ‘People’, highly unsatisfied with the ‘old parties’ (and particularly the Socialists); however, its goal of being politically and socially transversal remains far from being really achieved.
