Íñigo Errejón (Madrid, 41 years old), doctor in Political Science from the Complutense University, has a website (errejon.info). “Since I was very little,” he says as soon as he enters, “my parents always taught me the same values: an immense affection for democratic history and a deep conviction for social justice (…) I collaborated with 15M (..) .) I am a candidate for Más País to achieve a progressive Government in the next general elections.” Errejón’s political life ended this Thursday, ten years after he co-founded and joined four parties: Podemos (2014), Más Madrid (2019), Más País (2019) and Sumar (2023). His goodbye comes 24 hours after he defended Sumar’s position on housing in Congress. Without questions, or public act, he published a message on his profile on the social network And he has announced his departure from politics.
The reality is that Errejón’s resignation occurs 48 hours after the journalist Cristina Fallarás collected anonymous comments on her Instagram pointing to alleged humiliating sexual behavior or incompatible with the feminist principles of “a deputy from Madrid”, which some had interpreted as references to Errejón himself. Errejón has announced his departure and Sumar has opened an internal investigation. This is a tour of the five political events that have marked the political life of a profile that emerged after 15M.
1. The founding of Podemos (2014)
“When you get to heaven, the next day you have to take care of picking up the trash,” he confessed to EL PAÍS a few years ago. Errejón appears in the iconic Podemos photo. He was one of its founders. That snapshot, taken in October 2014, during the party’s first Assembly, reflects the enthusiasm of a formation that garnered up to five million votes and 69 deputies. And there was Errejón, with Carolina Bescansa, Luis Alegre, Juan Carlos Monedero, and his close friend, Pablo Iglesias. Of those five young people in the photo, he was the only one who continued in active politics until this Thursday. “In politics there is an element of luck, and no one wants to say that, because it seems that if you say it you strip yourself of the category of statesman,” he commented to this newspaper. last February 10. “There is another part that has to do with passion, and I am passionate about my work. And with perseverance: I am not cynical, I am faithful to the ideas that I have always had, and I have defended them in different places.”
2. Vistalegre II (2017)
On February 13, 2017, a clamor swept through the second Podemos congress. “Unit”. Almost 9,000 supporters chanted it. Errejón faced Iglesias, his close friend. They entered the pit separately, spent the day in different dressing rooms and only greeted each other once, with a forced hug between the cameras. That day, Podemos split in two, if it had not already been months before. Errejón tried to defend a political line that, in his opinion, should widen space, instead of enclosing it. And he lost, hard.
To understand this confrontation between the party’s number one and two in a public assembly, you have to travel back to a few months before. According to Errejón himself in the book Yet. From the fast years to the future (Planeta), the relationship between the two became distant in March 2016, when a member of the party left a chat conversation open in a tablet where some conversations between those close to Errejón are read, where discrepancies with the Iglesias line were shown. He finds out and immediately dismisses the party’s organizational secretary, Sergio Pascual. Later, Errejón goes up to Iglesias’ office and tells him that if he fires Pascual, he should also be removed. To which Iglesias responded: “It’s true, but I can’t with you yet,” he told him.
3. The pact of empanadillas and Más Madrid. (2018)
Manuela Carmena prepared some delicious empanadas for dinner. On December 21, 2018 I had a special guest at home. Those days, the then mayor of Madrid received a call from Errejón, recently named candidate of Pablo Iglesias’ party for the presidency of the Community for Podemos. Errejón wanted to learn more about Carmena’s new political project. The candidate for re-election had a plan drawn up for the 2019 elections: move away from traditional party concepts. He proposed to the citizens a political brand that would bring together different sectors of society. Now Madrid would become Más Madrid. Carmena was very clear in that telephone conversation with Errejón:
— Okay, Íñigo, let’s talk. I am very interested in knowing how you see the Community.
Errejón showed up that night at his house. Before getting into the matter, Carmena went to get the empanadas from the kitchen. Two minutes later – and with the tray in hand – an ankle made crack. There was no dinner. Carmena ended up in the hospital and Errejón… in Más Madrid as a candidate for the presidency of the region. This is how the well-known empanadillas pact which gave rise to the agreement between the two. She, as a candidate for mayor. And he, to the presidency of the region. Errejón then obtained 20 deputies and 475,000 votes, 13 more than Podemos, whom he had dealt a blow five months before the elections.
4. More Country (2019)
Four months later, Errejón runs for the presidency of the Government for the first time. He leaves his seat in Madrid to lead Más País, the satellite of the formation of Más Madrid at the national level. “Our seats will not be free, but they will serve a political objective,” he told EL PAÍS after announcing his project. He sought alliances between the territorial formations that turned their backs on Iglesias. “We are going to have a good result that I still do not dare to quantify. Our seats are for a progressive Government,” he predicted. However, it achieved three seats and 559,000 votes.
5. Add (2023)
In June 2023, Más País, the satellite of Más Madrid, was integrated into Sumar, Yolanda Díaz’s formation for the past general elections. His position, however, was discreet, number four for Madrid. His relationship with Más Madrid, according to two senior officials, was diluted. “We no longer coordinate with him on absolutely anything,” a leader now points out. Despite being a figure with a high political career, Errejón spent the first months of joining without a relevant weight in the formation. It was not until January of this year, when Díaz appointed him as spokesperson, that he once again gained weight in the congressional press conferences. A month later, he answered a question about his future in this newspaper:
—What will you do at 50 years old?
“Buff, who knows?” When I have been asked similar questions in the past, I have always failed to predict.
Eight months later, he has abruptly left politics.
