• Iglesias says Podemos must be ready to ‘take to streets’ against Rajoy
• Party leader expects labour-led strike to overturn 2012 ‘labour reform’ law
Pablo Iglesias, the leader of insurgent populist political party Podemos (We Can), has called on party members to prepare to take to the streets in support of a general strike should a Socialist party (PSOE) abstention in congressional voting next week re-elect acting-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) for another four years in office.
Iglesias told Podemos militants at a rally Friday in Extremadura, where Podemos’ regional party leadership recently pulled its support from the minority PSOE government, that Spain’s largest labour federations may call a general strike if Rajoy is re-elected and said Podemos should be prepared to join in the strike as part of its strategy to “take to the streets” to protest the continued austerity measures and conservative policies of Rajoy’s PP government.
During May Day celebrations this year, leaders of the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO, or ‘Workers Committees’) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, or ‘General Union of Workers’) pledged a nationwide general strike if Rajoy were returned to office and opposition parties did not unite to overturn the 2012 “labour reform law” passed unilaterally by the PP majority in Congress, which organised labour and left-opposition parties say has undermined workers’ rights in Spain.
Echoing Iglesias’ call for Podemos readiness should a general strike be called by the unions, the party’s Political Secretary and chief campaign strategist, Íñigo Errejón, said Saturday that should a PSOE abstention enable Rajoy’s return to power, Podemos will be the leader of the left-opposition in Congress and will launch a combined strategy in the Spanish parliament and in the streets desined to topple the Rajoy government.
► Read More in Spanish at El País and La Vangaurdia …
