Background While campaigning for the
2015 Spanish general election, the
United Left (IU) promoted the creation of, and later joined, the
Now in Common (
Ahora en Común, AeC) platform, seeking a wide alliance with other left-wing parties. After
Podemos rejected invitations to join to what some members of this party called an "acronym soup", heightened after the failure of
Catalunya Sí que es Pot in the
2015 Catalan election, the AeC platform gradually lost momentum: its founding members left the project and the brand name was lost. Eventually, the platform turned into the
Popular Unity (IU-UPeC) electoral coalition without having fulfilled its initial aspirations.
Negotiations From 20 April 2016, Podemos and Popular Unity were reported to be in negotiations to form a joint electoral list for the upcoming general election aimed at relegating the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) into third place. Leaders from both parties denied that any agreement had been reached and stated that they "would not do anything until it [the new election] was sure" but confirmed that unofficial talks had begun. More than one hundred intellectuals and artists, including
El Gran Wyoming,
Antonia San Juan,
Carlos Bardem,
Fernando Tejero, and
Luis Tosar signed a manifesto calling for Podemos, IU, and their regional alliances to join forces for the coming election. On the other hand, some member parties of IU, such as
Open Left, led by former IU leader
Gaspar Llamazares, were opposed to the alliance from the beginning. Among the supporters of such an alliance was one of Podemos' founders,
Juan Carlos Monedero, who proposed that both parties should come together under the name "Podemos En Común" (
Spanish for
We Can In Common). Mayor of
Barcelona Ada Colau also voiced her support for such a pact, stating, "I would see as positive that it could be put together, always with respect", her
En Comú Podem regional alliance having already seen both parties working together in Catalonia.
Valencian Vice President Mònica Oltra had also commented that she would see a Podemos–IU alliance as "good" so as to "make every vote count" and for "six million votes having a correct translation in deputies," in reference to the Spanish electoral system panning IU in the 2015 election. By 30 April 2016, both Podemos and IU acknowledged that formal coalition talks had started and that, despite differences over the coalition name and the composition of party lists, discussions were continuing throughout the following week. Concurrently, IU submitted its plan for an alliance with Podemos to a membership vote held on 2–4 May, which received 85% of the vote in favour. Despite the ongoing negotiations on 4 May, Podemos and IU leaders took the coalition between both of their parties for granted, setting the
People's Party (PP) as their main electoral rival and seeking to marginalise the PSOE. It was reported that both parties intended to formally announce their alliance during the 5th anniversary of the
15-M Movement. On 9 May 2016,
Pablo Iglesias Turrión of Podemos and
Alberto Garzón of IU officially announced an alliance between their respective parties, with both leaders symbolically sealing their pact through an embrace at
Puerta del Sol in
Madrid, landmark of the 15-M movement. The pact guaranteed that 1/6 of the candidates obtained by the coalition—as planned and without including the regional coalitions
En Comú Podem,
En Marea, and
És el moment—were to be awarded to IU candidates. In addition, the distinct identity of each party was to be preserved. Podemos, IU, and Equo put the alliance up to votes from their respective memberships on 10–11 May, all of which overwhelmingly supported the pact. On 13 May 2016, it was announced that the alliance would be named
Unidos Podemos, Spanish for United We Can. Despite initial disagreements over Més's place in the Congress lists, both parties finally reached an agreement on 13 May 2016 to run together in the Balearics under the "Units Podem Més" label (Catalan for
United We Can More). Earlier, on 11 May 2016, Navarrese party
Batzarre—from 2011 within the
Izquierda-Ezkerra alliance with IU in
Navarre—had voted for joining the Podemos–IU alliance. That same day, For a Fairer World (
Por un Mundo más Justo, PUM+J), which had previously participated in left-wing alliances such as
Ahora Madrid, had announced its intention to join the alliance with 61% of its members favouring the pact. Also joining the alliance was Zaragoza in Common (ZEC), the municipal alliance created for the
2015 municipal election in the city of
Zaragoza and which went on to win the city's government.
2016 general election The results of the alliance between Podemos and IU were 'highly disappointing,' as Pablo Iglesias said on the electoral night; however, the alliance itself was called 'the right path.' Unidos Podemos got 71 seats, the same as in December, losing near 1.1 million votes.
2019 general elections In the
April 2019 Spanish general election, the party lost 29 seats and fell to the 4th place in the
Congress of Deputies, below
Ciudadanos. In the
November 2019 Spanish general election, the party lost 7 more seats, falling in 4th place, this time below
Vox. It entered a coalition government with the
PSOE.
2019 European Parliament election On 26 May 2018, Podemos announced that the name of the coalition for the
2019 European Parliament election in Spain would be
Unidas Podemos cambiar Europa ("United We Can Change Europe"). == Composition ==