Podemos held its third Citizen’s Assembly, online due to the COVID19 crisis, this week.
Iglesias got re-elected as leader by a whopping 92%. However, only 11% of party members bothered to vote, so maybe he isn’t as popular as he thinks he is. The low turnout may have been influenced by the fact that he only had one opponent, a nobody called Fernando Barredo. Nobody had ever heard of this Fernando before, he was obviously a paper candidate rustled up at the last minute to make the Dear Leader look “democratic”. He still managed to get 7.8% of the vote.
The same election voted to lift the rule saying that party members can only accept a salary equivalent to three times the minimum salary. This rule was obviously very annoying to Sanchez, who can’t fully enjoy the vast salary given to ministers of state. And his wife.
Oh, and party members who pay a subscription fee get perks.
The “election” continues in the best tradition of the communist parties. I note that he hasn’t been shouting this triumph to the roofs, either – he seems to have allowed it to pass without so much as a personal press release.