Spain’s young ‘party of change’ rocks to a ’70s beat

BARCELONA — For a political party that bills itself as “the party of change” for a new generation, the left-wing Podemos (“we can”) has a very dated soundtrack.

At the massive March for Change held in Madrid on Jan, 31, sympathizers of the anti-establishment, anti-austerity political party chanted arm in arm to Mercedes Sosa’s “Everything Changes,” a Latin American hymn of resistance. Lluis Llach’s “The Stake,” a relic of Catalonia’s and Spain’s anti-Franco democratic struggle, is another party favorite.

In the same vein, Podemos has roused masses on other occasions with José Antonio Labordeta’s “Song to Freedom,” “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” by Quilapayún and “Gallop,” a Rafael Alberti poem set to music by Paco Ibáñez.

The handful of songs fall on the same band of the cultural spectrum: They are all more than 40 years old and are directly related to the iconography of Spain’s democratic transition of the 1970s, Salvador Allende’s Chilean socialist government (1970 to 1973) and other Latin American revolutionary movements of that period. They reinforce the idea that Podemos is for everyone, not just the young indignados behind the country’s political protests of 2011 and 2012.

The Spanish press has commented extensively on how the youthful party has adopted these ’70s-era anthems that were iconic during the very same democratic transition Podemos so heavily criticizes.

“The team that works on choosing songs and references has looked for imagery that appeals and communicates to a vast majority — old people, youngsters, men and women,” said Jorge Lago, a member of Podemos’ Culture Circle and Citizen's Council, the core of the organization. “As the economic crisis and the kidnapping of democracy affect us all, we need to appeal to the whole.”

Political analyst Antonio Gutiérrez-Rubi considers the song selections equal parts ideological statement and political strategy. Podemos’ choice of songs, he said, “has been calculated to sway the socialist heart so betrayed by economic and institutional corruption and the financial crisis.”

When the economic crisis hit Spain in 2008, unemployment soared. (It remains at 24 percent, according to the National Statistic Institute. Federal bailouts to save the country’s disastrously managed savings banks cost the government more than 100 billion euros since 2009. A change of government in 2011 from the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party to the conservative Popular Party didn't bring much improvement. After three and a half years of government-inflicted austerity, the number of politicians being investigated for corruption nears 2,000, and embezzlement of public funds makes headlines in Spain nearly every week.

The dramatic rise in popularity of Podemos, founded last year by several intellectuals and university teachers and headed by 36-year-old Pablo Iglesias, was bolstered by the victory of Greece’s anti-austerity Syriza party in parliamentary elections in January. Podemos aims to roll back austerity and renew welfare policies to address the income inequality they say is driven by la casta, as it calls Spain’s business and political elites.

The latest voter survey for El País, released Feb. 6, shows the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party went from 28 percent support in December to 18 percent in January. Support for Podemos, meanwhile, seems to have stabilized at about 28 percent.

The party’s cultural selections used to rally crowds appears to contrast with its leaders’ tastes, which are much more in tune with popular youth culture.

On various occasions, Pablo Iglesias has spoken of contemporary cinema, stating his preference for cult director Alex de la Iglesia. Iglesias has written about the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones,” praising the character Daenerys Targaryen and equating her strength to Podemos’ spirit. He’s even made a ritual nod to punk bands like Reincidentes on his “La Tuerka” TV show. All this endears him and his party to young voters.

A book containing articles by Iglesias and Podemos’ No. 2 secretary, Iñigo Errejón, are distributed along with the latest album by Valencian rap group Los Chikos del Maíz.

“It’s great that Pablo and Errejón listen to Los Chikos del Maíz and to Habeas Corpus, but they’re not mainstream bands,” said Ricardo “Nega” Romero Laullón, a Chikos del Maíz member, self-described Marxist and friend of Iglesias’. “It would be elitist to try and pass ourselves off as the soundtrack of an entire country.”

While minimizing his band’s prominence in Podemos’ cultural references, Laullón warned that Podemos may end up losing younger people, may be put off by the party’s cultural contradictions and reliance on references to the past.

“If they fly the new political flag [the tricolor of the Second Spanish Republic] and close their acts with Mercedes Sosa and Lluis Llach, that smack of transition,” he said, “it could prove repellent and, worse, lead to defeat.”

The party’s affinity for tradition is also evident in the literature cited at Podemos’ public gatherings. At a massive rally at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Iglesias alluded to poet Antonio Machado, one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of ’98 who died in exile in 1939 during the Spanish Civil War. Juan Carlos Monedero, a member of Podemos’ executive committee, quoted the poets Federico García Lorca and César Vallejo — both staunch defenders of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War.

Yet in the same act, Iglesias made a reference to Don Quijote, appealing to “that crazy gentleman who set an example of nobility and courage in the face of injustice,” adding that “we sometimes lack dignified lunatics who square up to the powerful few.” The use of such a classic piece of literature, unrelated to modern or contemporary history, seemed to indicate a widening of cultural goalposts.

For Gutiérrez-Rubi, the reference to Don Quijote and the popular uprising of May 2, 1808, is strategic. “It helps to build a myth, that of David and Goliath,” he said. “It seeks to create emotional archetypes, both for the older generation that wants to get excited about politics again and the new generation that is experiencing it for the first time.”

As leaders and followers at rallies across the country chant “tick-tock, tick-tock” — counting down the time until they hope Podemos changes the country’s political landscape — the clock is also ticking for Podemos to solidify its cultural identity. Municipal elections are three months away, and general elections are in December.