United Left (Spain)

United Left

Izquierda Unida
United Left Izquierda Unida
General Coordinator	Alberto Garzón
Founded	April 1986 (as coalition); 2 November 1992 (as party federation)
Youth wing
LGBT wing	ALEAS
Membership (2019)	29,506
Ideology	Communism; Socialism; Eco-socialism; Republicanism; Secularism; Spanish federalism; Anti-fascism; Anti-imperialism
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
National affiliation	Unidas Podemos
European affiliation	Party of the European Left
European Parliament group	The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL
Colours	Red
Congress of Deputies	6 / 350
Spanish Senate	0 / 266
European Parliament	2 / 59
Regional Parliaments	20 / 1,268
Local Government (2015)	2,022 / 67,515 (Candidates gained in coalitions or unitary lists not included)
Website
	www.izquierda-unida.es
	Politics of Spain; Political parties; Elections;

United Left (Spanish: Izquierda Unida [iθˈkjeɾða uˈniða], IU) is a political coalition that was organized in 1986, bringing together several left-wing political organizations.^[8]

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.^[8] Despite that, IU brings together other regional parties, political organizations, and independents.^[8] It currently takes the form of a permanent federation of parties.

Congress seats from 1977 (as PCE) to 2011

IU is currently part of the Unidas Podemos coalition and the corresponding parliamentary group in the Congreso de los Diputados. Since January 2020, it participates for the first time in a national coalition government with one minister.

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.^[8] With this premise, the PCE began developing closer relations with other left-wing groups, with the vision of forming a broad left coalition.^[8] 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.^[9]^[8] IU generally opposed cooperating with the PSOE, and identified it as a "right-wing party", no different from the People's Party (PP).^[9]^[8]

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.^[8] They also adopted a universal policy in favor of cooperating with the PSOE at local level.^[8]

Following the election of Cayo Lara as leader in 2008, however, the party has shifted back towards a more confrontational attitude towards the PSOE.^{[citation needed]}

IU currently has around 70,000 members.^[10]

Member parties[]

Party
	Communist Party of Spain (PCE)
	Communist Youth Union of Spain (UJCE)
	Open Left (IAb)
	Republican Left (IR)
	Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR)
	(ESRM)

Federations of IU[]

Andalusia: Izquierda Unida Los Verdes - Convocatoría por Andalucía (United Left/The Greens - Assembly for Andalusia)
Aragon: Izquierda Unida Aragón (United Left of Aragon)
Asturias: Izquierda Xunida de Asturies (United Left of Asturias)
Balearic Islands: Esquerra Unida de les Illes Balears (United Left of the Balearic Islands)
Canary Islands: Izquierda Unida Canaria (Canarian United Left)
Cantabria: Izquierda Unida de Cantabria (Cantabrian United Left)
Castilla-La Mancha: (United Left of Castilla-La Mancha)
Catalonia: Esquerra Unida Catalunya (United Left Catalonia, Founded in July 2019; suspended in June 2019 Esquerra Unida i Alternativa)^[11]
Castilla y León: Izquierda Unida de Castilla y León (United Left of Castile and León)
Ceuta: Izquierda Unida de Ceuta (United Left of Ceuta)
Euskadi: Izquierda Unida - Los Verdes: Ezker Anitza (United Left - The Greens: Plural Left)
Extremadura: Izquierda Unida Extremadura (United Left Extremadura)
Galicia: Esquerda Unida (United Left of Galicia)
La Rioja: Izquierda Unida La Rioja (United Left-La Rioja)
Madrid: Izquierda Unida-Madrid (United Left-Madrid).^[12] Izquierda Unida de la Comunidad de Madrid (United Left of the Community of Madrid) was expelled in 2015. The new federation, IU-M, was created in 2016.^[13]
Melilla: Izquierda Unida - Federación de Melilla (United Left - Melilla Federation)
Murcia: Izquierda Unida-Verdes de la Región de Murcia (United Left - Greens of the Region of Murcia)
Navarra: Izquierda Unida de Navarra - Nafarroako Ezker Batua (United Left of Navarra)
Valencian Community: Esquerra Unida del País Valencià (United Left of the Valencian Country)

Leaders[]

Name	Period	Notes
Gerardo Iglesias	1986
Julio Anguita	1986–1999
Francisco Frutos	1999-2001
Gaspar Llamazares	2001–2008
Cayo Lara	2008–2014
Alberto Garzón	2014–present

Electoral performance[]

Cortes Generales[]

Election	Leading candidate	Congress					Senate		Gov.
Cortes Generales
Election	Leading candidate	Votes	%	#	Seats	+/–	Seats	+/–	Gov.
1986	Gerardo Iglesias	935,504	4.6	5th	7 / 350	3	0 / 208	0	No
1989	Julio Anguita	1,858,588	9.1	3rd	17 / 350	10	1 / 208	1	No
1993		2,253,722	9.6	3rd	18 / 350	1	0 / 208	1	No
1996		2,639,774	10.5	3rd	21 / 350	3	0 / 208	0	No
2000	Francisco Frutos	1,263,043	5.4	3rd	8 / 350	13	0 / 208	0	No
2004	Gaspar Llamazares	1,284,081	5.0	3rd	5 / 350	3	1 / 208	1	Support
2008	Gaspar Llamazares	969,946	3.8	3rd	2 / 350	3	1 / 208	0	No
2011	Cayo Lara	with Plural Left			7 / 350	5	0 / 208	1	No
2015	Alberto Garzón	with Popular Unity			2 / 350	5	0 / 208	0	New election
2016		with Unidos Podemos			8 / 350	6	2 / 208	2	No (2016–18)
2016		with Unidos Podemos			8 / 350	6	2 / 208	2	Support (2018–19)
Apr-2019		with Unidas Podemos			5 / 350	3	0 / 208	2	New election
Nov-2019		with Unidas Podemos			5 / 350	0	0 / 208	0	Yes

European Parliament[]

Election	Leading candidate	Votes	%	#	Seats	+/–
European Parliament
1987	Fernando Pérez Royo	1,011,830	5.3	4th	3 / 60	—
1989	Fernando Pérez Royo	961,742	6.1	4th	4 / 60	1
1994	Alonso Puerta	2,497,671	13.4	3rd	9 / 64	5
1999	Alonso Puerta	1,221,566	5.8	3rd	4 / 64	5
2004	Willy Meyer	643,136	4.1	4th	2 / 54	2
2009		with The Left			2 / 54	0
2014		with Plural Left			4 / 54	2
2019	Sira Rego	with UPCE			2 / 54	2

References[]

^ Los partidos se atribuyen ocho veces más militantes de los que admiten pagar cuotas. Público, 28/07/2019.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
^ "IU recurre a la vía ecosocialista para atraer a los votantes descontentos con el PSOE". 15 November 2010.
^ "European Social Survey 2012 - Appendix 3 (in English)" (PDF). European Science Foundation. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Européennes : poussée du parti d'extrême gauche Izquierda Unida en Espagne". 25 May 2014.
^ "Espagne : Podemos s'allie avec l'extrême gauche pour les législatives". 10 May 2016.
^ Like Ahora Madrid, Barcelona en Comú or Marea Atlántica. This lists gained 3,223 town councillors.
^ Jump up to: ^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.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Topaloff, L (2012) Political Parties and Euroscepticism, pp192-193
^ Entre coalición y partido, la evolución de modelo organizativo en IU, Luis Ramiro Archived March 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
^ 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.
^ IU rompe "a todos los efectos" con su federación madrileña. El Diario, 14/06/2015 - 10:48h. Aitor Rivero.
^ La militancia de IU Madrid elige a Mauricio Valiente y Chus Alonso al frente de la nueva formación. Público, 03/05/2016.

External links[]

[1] Los partidos se atribuyen ocho veces más militantes de los que admiten pagar cuotas. Público, 28/07/2019.

[Nordsieck-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2019.

[3] "IU recurre a la vía ecosocialista para atraer a los votantes descontentos con el PSOE". 15 November 2010.

[essa3-4] "European Social Survey 2012 - Appendix 3 (in English)" (PDF). European Science Foundation. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}

[5] "Européennes : poussée du parti d'extrême gauche Izquierda Unida en Espagne". 25 May 2014.

[6] "Espagne : Podemos s'allie avec l'extrême gauche pour les législatives". 10 May 2016.

[7] Like Ahora Madrid, Barcelona en Comú or Marea Atlántica. This lists gained 3,223 town councillors.

[icpslrf2002-8] Jump up to: ^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.

[tl2012-9] Jump up to: ^a ^b Topaloff, L (2012) Political Parties and Euroscepticism, pp192-193

[10] Entre coalición y partido, la evolución de modelo organizativo en IU, Luis Ramiro Archived March 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

[11] 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.

[12] IU rompe "a todos los efectos" con su federación madrileña. El Diario, 14/06/2015 - 10:48h. Aitor Rivero.

[13] La militancia de IU Madrid elige a Mauricio Valiente y Chus Alonso al frente de la nueva formación. Público, 03/05/2016.

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