Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias (top) and Dr Julien Mercille
A new progressive political party is the biggest challenge to Spain’s political ruling class in decades and could inspire Irish people to sweep its own establishment aside.
Which is why you won’t hear about it in the Irish media.
Dr Julien Mercille writes:
Podemos has inspired progressive forces across Europe and beyond. It was launched in January 2014 and since then its popular support has surged and currently stands at over 20% of the electorate.
Podemos opposes austerity and its popularity has skyrocketed in a context of high unemployment and acute social, economic and political problems related to the economic crisis.
Spain’s unemployment rate has stood at 24% for the last four years, or 5.5 million people, over half of whom are considered long-term unemployed. For young people, the unemployment rate is at over 50%. About 2 million people live in households where nobody has a job.
Another important issue rallying citizens against the pro-austerity parties has been the very large number of evictions of families from their homes. For example, in 2013, there was an average of 184 evictions per day, or 67,000 for the year.
Only a few months after its formation, Podemos won 1.2 million votes and five seats in the European Parliament in May 2014.
A few days ago, coalitions to which Podemos is affiliated did well in regional elections and took over Barcelona and posted a strong performance in Madrid. The two cities are now set to be ruled by two women who are resolutely opposed to austerity. The conservative People’s Party suffered its worst results in elections in over two decades.
General elections are expected to be held by the end of this year and could concretise a shift toward the left in power, as happened in Greece with Syriza.
For progressives, two lessons may be drawn from Podemos.
First, a political party that seeks to govern by representing people must, well, be grounded in popular movements. In the run up to Spain’s 2011 election, so-called indignados, people who were simply sick of the corruption and austerity, came out in the hundreds of thousands in the streets and protested against the traditional political elites.
Podemos emerged from that and gave electoral direction to this outburst of popular protest. Hundreds of citizens’ groups have been formed to support Podemos and debate ideas. Votes have been taken via the internet to include ordinary people in decisions as much as possible.
Second, communicate clearly. Podemos eschews talk of “left and right” and prefers to focus on actual issues that concern people from health care to unemployment and corruption.
For example, instead of using words and phrases like “the proletariat is being exploited by bourgeois capitalists”, they say “kick the establishment out”. Leftists need to understand that traditional Marxist words don’t resonate with ordinary people, and that ordinary people are right in this respect, because such jargon is almost always quite irrelevant to address real problems anyway.
Notwithstanding how far Podemos goes electorally, just like Syriza, it has already provided an important example that it is possible for progressives to organise, challenge power, and take power.
This is why the Irish and European establishments dislike it and would rather not talk about it, hoping people won’t get ideas that could lead to grassroot empowerment. They know that if similar movements emerge and grow in Ireland and Europe, they could sweep the old crust of leaders who implement austerity, keep people jobless, and do nothing to improve the health care system, among other things.
Looking at the Irish media coverage of Podemos is very revealing. Simply put, it has systematically ignored Podemos. I looked at all Irish newspapers contained in the news database Nexis since January 2014, when Podemos was formed.
Apart from the main papers, there’s virtually no coverage in the smaller local publications. So I examined only the main papers: Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday Business Post, and Irish Examiner (I didn’t consider the Sunday Times because it is difficult to differentiate its Irish and British editions in the database).
The results are striking: over one and a half year, only 20 articles talked about Podemos for more than a couple of sentences. Worse, only 7 articles had the word “Podemos” in their title. (A total of 102 articles mentioned Podemos, but the overwhelming majority of those mentioned it only in passing, while discussing another subject, such as Syriza in Greece).
To put this in perspective, those five newspapers have published about 65,000 articles on economics and politics since Podemos came into existence. Thus, the 20 pieces amount to 0.03% of media coverage on economics and politics. Does anyone still want to argue we have a balanced press?
Most articles are rather descriptive and thus there isn’t much enthusiasm about Podemos. But strong opposition to the party can also be found. For example, Dan O’Brien is a journalist with the Irish Independent who has a strong record of writing articles that defend the interests of the rich and powerful. He writes that we should be worried about Podemos because—wait for it—“importing Latin American populism and thuggery would fail economically, and, more importantly, undermine freedom and democracy in Spain”.
So here we go: one of the most important progressive movements in recent years, which offers hope to a whole country to do away with austerity, and indeed in Europe and beyond, is pictured as a threat to democracy and freedom.
Such blatant misrepresentation reveals that the powerful are worried, above all, by one thing: people power. Elites know very well that if people played a larger role in policy making, they would not allow decisions that favour the rich as much as is the case currently.
A Podemos-inspired wave of popular mobilization could seriously challenge existing power structures in Ireland, including our conservative media landscape.
@JulienMercille is lecturer at UCD and the author of The Political Economy and Media Coverage of the European Economic Crisis: The Case of Ireland (2015, Routledge). His new book, Europe’s Treasure Ireland (Palgrave), will be out in July 2015.
Dear Dr, in light of above how would you justify the media’s coverage of allegations of corruption against Podemos?
Well said Mercille, as always.
Good man slice pan. Is féidir linn!
you’re great with the oul corruption stuff, but when you start this red brigade cack, you lose me
as you nearly hit on but glide over with fingers in your ears – similar parties in this country are far too concerned with the terminology of communism and stabbing each other in the back over it (SP, SWP, PBP, AAA…)
they have never united and show zero chance of ever being able to win popular support. the ULA lasted, what, a fortnight? all members wayyy too interested in their own egos
won’t happen unless there is widespread poverty, which seems to give them and you revolution boners
This is absolutely NOTHING to do with communism. You sound like an American Republican trying to scare monger.
marxism has nothing to do with communism? oh we’re down the rabbit hole now alright
The left here is a joke. Podemos and Syriza succeed because they drop their obsession with ideological purity – something Joe Higgins evidently can’t do, since doing business with People Before Profit or even Clare Daly seems to be a compromise too far – you need to believe EXACTLY what the SP believes about exactly the same things. It’s really depressing.
‘…Leftists need to understand that traditional Marxist words don’t resonate with ordinary people’…this is true but an exception has to be made for Dan O’Brien…he is truely a running dog of capitalism.
One of the greatest tricks of Fine Gael is to be divisive and to fool just enough people into thinking they are part of the successful set and that their interests are threaded by so-called left wing politics. When in fact only a tiny minority are making millions off the back of others through cheap labour, cheaper supplies, buying cheap commercial property but renting it out at high prices.
Also:
1. People are conditioned to think protesting is quasi-legal when it is in fact entirely legal.
2. People (via the MSM) are encouraged to be suspicious of people who are economically vulnerable.
3. Anyone who demands investigations into banking matters are cranks and give out about everything.
4. It’s ’embarrassing’ to be seen as a protester for any reason, it means you’re losing and not part of the winners!
5. Whistle blowers are officially encouraged but in reality they are oppressed and ridiculed.
6. Everything is to be done in the service of money and profit.
7. The wholesale tax evasion of the connected is entirely ignored because those who are supposed to catch it and prosecute it are in fact the very same people committing the crimes.
Dr Mercille’s analysis of media coverage would be more convincing if he did the obvious and gave us an idea of how many articles appeared on Spanish politics/economics and how much coverage Podemos received in this subset. I suspect the result would be somewhere in the region of 100%, which might undercut his thesis a tad.
Yeah- the Irish media isn’t very interested in politics outside of Ireland, the UK and the US. After that there might be some interest in other English speaking countries, the largest European countries and places with particularly interesting elections around election time.
“Looking at the Irish media coverage of Podemos is very revealing. Simply put, it has systematically ignored Podemos… Thus, the 20 pieces amount to 0.03% of media coverage on economics and politics.”
How much coverage do Irish newspapers normally give Spanish local elections(?)
Gah, Daragh was there ahead of me.
Only by three minutes!
Nice idea Julian but we’d need the “boat to vote” brigade and other assorted bandwagon merchants to mobilise if we are to see real change. A general election is too complex for most of these people however and the “equality “message which was put forward for the easy to understand referendum will be abandoned as the majority will return the current government, bribed with a modest tax cut.
Eh, that will be Podemos, with an S at the end.
must be some night course running in UCD on data analysis. ..
If we’re going to insist on academic titles, it should also be Dr. Pablo Iglesias (he’s got a Ph.D. in Political Science).
Them letters are very important. Friend of mine has the distiguished MCQN on his business card (Mas Cojones Que Nadie).
No more balls than what???
More balls than anyone.
People never asked him what MCQN stood for.
This guy is like a teenage boy who saw The X Files for the first time.
The reason nobody is talking about it is that it is not particularly interesting, we have our own left wing politicians making unrealistic promises. We also have Syriza in Greece which we are all aware of.
One thing that Julien must like about the media is all those realty TV shows like The Voice as “Votes have been taken via the internet to include ordinary people in decisions as much as possible.”
Broadsheet – this may spike numbers in the short term reading the website, but if it is implied over time via content that BS is leaned particularly towards the left (or the right) it will damage credibility as a relatively objective news dispenser and I for one will probably look elsewhere.
In fairness BS have never pretended to be objective in any way shape or form.
And should they be?
Can you suggest an esteemed organ of journalism that is not? (Genuine question, btw, I am not enamoured of the wall of dross in the average newsagent)
It depends really. What does broadsheet want to be?
I certainly wouldn’t call it an esteemed organ of journalism. In fact without balanced reporting it’s not a far step from a tumblr account
You haven’t answered my question.
Quelle surprise.
Yeah, fair enough.
There is at least an attempt at objectivity in public service broadcasting (RTE, BBC) and others eg Irish Times and Channel 4, though subjectivity is inevitable. If no attempt at objectivity is made you end up with American TV journalism which is at times outrageously subjective in both directions, although this can be entertaining.
“Polarised” is the word you are looking for …
Toodle pip old chap. Shut the door on your way out.
Will do, thanks
“importing Latin American populism and thuggery ” – WOW. There’s some “sudaca” racism right there.
Also, the PP should never have been elected in the first place. awful shower of c*cks
The “Popular Party”, they hold a rally each year in Barcelona celebrating Franco.
Top notch trolling right there!
Again this is why Julien Mercile should be running for office. A gifted writer and thinker.
Spot on again about the role the media has played in coverage of the left their attempts to pain them in a villanous manner.
all that fluff going to your head.. gifted writer and thinker… I hope sarcasm is your friend
I think Darragh and Rob above did a pretty good job of pointing out exactly why his writing is deeply flawed
They did not.
A simple google search will return multiple articles on Spanish elections.
They did a pretty good job of demonstrating their ignorance of “foreign” (ie non English speaking) news.
The Irish media did not cover Gemma Doherty if we remember correctly and fairly little mention of DOB. Its not beyond imagination that the media would not run with articles on Podemos as it would go contrary to their interests.
BS : Irish media have prob not even heard of Podemos. Simple as.
I’m not sure what you are all talking about: all of the major papers covered Podemas’s victory in the local elections. Their election success garnered way more coverage than any other Spanish local elections that I can remember – the papers were hardly going to have 16 page pull-out on a topic that isn’t followed closely by most Irish people.
Dereviled – I’m actually fully aware of Podemos (including it recently losing support to its right via Ciudidanos, its emergence from the Indignados movement, its attempts to ‘crowdsource’ the manifesto etc.) being… a professional political risk analyst focused on Europe and Eurasia. If you’re going to accuse someone of ignorance, you might want to read what they actually write first.
What I was noting was that the Irish media typically does not devote much time to European elections (Mercille could equally have written this article about the surge the NDP is currently enjoying in Canada, both in the recent Alberta elections and in federal polling). My point was that this is not due to a nefarious establishment plot – it’s more due to Irish newspapers not devoting huge amounts of space to electoral races in other countries (aside from, as noted above, the US and UK). Even Turkey’s hugely important election this weekend only really gained inches on the Sunday it was held and the Monday afterwards, and the latter due to a very unexpected result.
“Mercille could equally have written this article about the surge the NDP is currently enjoying in Canada”
Well, no; (a) Podemos’ rise in popularity is attributed in no small part to their anti-austerity policies (austerity being something hugely polemical with citizens in Ireland too) and (b) Spain and Ireland are both EU members, whereas on the other hand, the NDP party in Canada have come under criticism by many due to to their lack of a stance on austerity.
Not surprisingly, I have never heard of this movement. All of the Irish media outlets are blatantly pro establishment.
Personally, I don’t think we ever actually gained our independence from that lot across the water.
Funny how a country which does not allow its citizens to accept a title or peerage (Éire) still allows people endowed or conferred with these “honours” to live on this island and maintain their estates. Usually when a nation gains its freedom, the oppressors are shown the door.
journal.ie is the biggest perpetrator of pro-“inner-sanctum” bilge.
Boycott!!!
I am sure there are many movements on the continent that you have never heard of. There’s a cartoon a bit further down that might ring a few bells with you lad.
Ah come on broadsheet, just go and marry him. It’s legal now.
… and a gay joke.
How we tremble before your mighty intellect.
There are as many examples of right wing an xenophobic parties ‘focusing on issues’ and exploiting discontent to win support as there are of left or ‘progressive’ ones. They are united by the politics of the easy answer. “It’s their fault. They did it to you. Sweep them away and all will be fine”.
Podemas have exactly no record on which to base any sense of them being the answer to anything. They have the support of 20% and no one has begun to examine what they might actually do as a government. So can we have a bit less of the messianic nonsense.
“Irish papers not full of Spanish electoral politics” might well be the single most ridiculous ‘academic’ finding ever published.
+1 of course this won’t stop Broadsheet having a similarly light on substance, heavy on self importance piece from the same guy next Monday…
+1
You’d think the front pages were constantly covered in stories about obscure Austrian right-wing parties from the way the ejit is moaning on today.
Though he has inspired me to consider a PhD. Can’t be very hard if this is the standard.
+1000000
giggle of the day
Parties need to start somewhere, they are a different choice to the two usual centre left/right parties in existence.
I thought this was an EP launch for Podemo, Spain’s answer to Hozier crossed with Shia LeBeouf.
Then I scrolled down and realised it was a Canadian whingebag a la Brian Adams
And then, having destroyed Mercille and ridiculed his stupid followers with my brilliant comment, I ducked into the staff canteen for my afternoon crywank
We don’t have a canteen so the carpark had to do
Everything I do I do it for me
So this is why I’ve ‘White Lines’ going round in my head since this morning
What he is saying is that a country which has had a right wing bias since its foundation has a right wing biased media. The agenda of media is not what is covered but what is not. Why should this surprise you?
Edit: Old media.
The Irish Media are reluctant to cover anything that might upset the delicate position that the current junta are now faced with, they are frightened out of their living daylights in particular that Sinn Fein or a group of anti austerity candidates would get elected. and abolish their perks, pensions and privelages and that includes free parking in Dail Eireann even when your retired or kicked out, anyways there’s no room for anything in the papers, there saturated with adds, and the TV, well RTE the so called public service broadcaster can’t run a main news bulleten without an add break slotted in the middle, even the weather has to rely on Avonmore for sponsorship and that’s really milking it.
Don’t expect Finan Sheehan or Stephen Rea or David Davin Power to head off
for Spain or Greece in the Morning, Kilkenny Cows are more likely to fly……
The Avonmore ones.
Does it help to have some bogyman to blame for everything?
You should start your own blog.