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United Left (Spain)

United Left (Spanish: Izquierda Unida [iθˈkjeɾðawˈniða], IU) is a federative political movement in Spain that was first organized as a coalition in 1986, bringing together several left-wing political organizations, grouped primarily around the Communist Party of Spain.[10]

IU was founded as an electoral coalition of seven parties, but the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) is the only remaining integrated member of the IU at the national level.[10] Despite that, IU brings together other regional parties, political organizations, and independents.[10] It currently takes the form of a permanent federation of parties.

Congress seats from 1977 (as PCE) to 2011

IU took part of the Unidas Podemos coalition and the corresponding parliamentary group in the Congreso de los Diputados between 2016 and 2023. Since January 2020, it participated for the first time in a national coalition government, with one minister. For the 2023 general election, IU took part of the Sumar platform.[11]

History

United Left logo from 1986. It was composed of the logos of the parties that signed the coalition. It would not be until 1988 that a specific logo for IU would be designed.
Julio Anguita, general coordinator of United Left from 1989 to 1999.

Following the electoral failure of the PCE in the 1982 (from 10% to 4%), PCE leaders believed that the PCE alone could no longer effectively challenge the electoral hegemony of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) on the left.[10] With this premise, the PCE began developing closer relations with other left-wing groups, with the vision of forming a broad left coalition.[10] IU slowly improved its results, reaching 9% in 1989 (1,800,000 votes) and nearly 11% in 1996 (2,600,000 votes). The founding organizations were: Communist Party of Spain, Progressive Federation, Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain, PASOC, Carlist Party, Humanist Party, Unitarian Candidacy of Workers, and Republican Left.

In contrast to the PCE prior to the formation of IU, which pursued a more moderate political course, the new IU adopted a more radical strategy and ideology of confrontation against the PSOE.[12][10] IU generally opposed cooperating with the PSOE, and identified it as a "right-wing party", no different from the People's Party (PP).[12][10]

After achieving poor results in the 1999 local and European elections, IU decided to adopt a more conciliatory attitude towards the PSOE, and agreed to sign an electoral pact with the PSOE for the upcoming general election in 2000.[10] They also adopted a universal policy in favor of cooperating with the PSOE at local level.[10]

IU currently has around 18,000 members, a decrease from 70,000 in 2012.[1][13]

Composition

Federations of IU

Leaders

Electoral performance

Cortes Generales

European Parliament

References

  1. ^ a b Fernández, Por David (November 27, 2023). "La hegemonía de la izquierda también se mide en cifras: Sumar alcanza los 70.000 inscritos, en Podemos votan 55.000 e IU tiene 18.000 afiliados". infobae.
  2. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  3. ^ "European Social Survey 2012 - Appendix 3 (in English)" (PDF). European Science Foundation. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2014.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Spanish voters wake up to new political landscape". openDemocracy. 25 May 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Democratic defender". POLITICO. 25 November 2009.
  6. ^ [4][5]
  7. ^ "Européennes : poussée du parti d'extrême gauche Izquierda Unida en Espagne". 25 May 2014.
  8. ^ "Espagne : Podemos s'allie avec l'extrême gauche pour les législatives". 10 May 2016.
  9. ^ [7][8]
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Electoral incentives and organizational limits. The evolution of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and the United Left (IU) (in English)" (PDF). Institute of Political and Social Sciences. 2002. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  11. ^ RTVE.es (2023-06-09). "IU alcanza un acuerdo con Sumar para concurrir juntos a las elecciones". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  12. ^ a b Topaloff, L (2012) Political Parties and Euroscepticism, pp192-193
  13. ^ Entre coalición y partido, la evolución de modelo organizativo en IU, Luis Ramiro Archived March 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Following the tradition of the Spanish left since the formation of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) in 1936 (when communists and socialists joined forces in Catalunya), IU doesn't have any organization of its own in Catalonia. Until 1998, the referent of IU in Catalonia was Initiative for Catalonia (Iniciativa per Catalunya, now known as IC-V). But IC eventually broke relations with IU. A split in PSUC followed, and a new Catalan alliance, United and Alternative Left (Esquerra Unida i Alternativa, EUiA), was formed as the new Catalan referent of IU.
  15. ^ IU rompe "a todos los efectos" con su federación madrileña. El Diario, 14/06/2015 - 10:48h. Aitor Rivero.
  16. ^ La militancia de IU Madrid elige a Mauricio Valiente y Chus Alonso al frente de la nueva formación. Público, 03/05/2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Izquierda Unida.