Ivan Redondo Bacaicoa is a political strategist and chief of staff of the Spanish prime-minister Pedro Sanchez. Essentially, he plays the same role Alaister Campbell and Peter Mandelson played with Tony Blair or David Axelrod with Barack Obama but with a fundamental difference, while these strategists were part of the party of the politician they aided Ivan Redondo is an independent, having actually worked for the conservatives of Partido Popular(PP) in several ocasions.



It was in 2007 when he got his first high profile job. He was contacted by Xavier Garcia Albiol, by then town councillor of the third largest city in Catalunya, Badalona, controlled by PSOE for decades. Albiol wanted to win and thought an external consultant would help. Redondo accepted and with Albiol forged a bold and different strategy – Instead of trying to attract CiU(catalanist party) voters like Catalan PP wanted they would appeal to blue collar working class PSOE voters. For this they would use the argument of security(one of the main worries of voters) and linking it to ilegal immigration under the motto ‘’cleaning badalona’’. The campaign was so agressive and politically incorrect that sent shock waves across the country leading some PP politicians to criticize Albiol. In the end, Albiol didn’t manage to win the election but increase it’s representation in the city council. The young spin-doctor became known within PP ranks and desired among those who wanted to pull off good results. His next job was in his own region – Basque Country. The PP was in the middle of a crisis and everyone expected an election disaster. Redondo didn’t avoid the party to lose seats but PP got a decent result with a bold award-winning campaign. The basque PP became kingmaker and made an agreement with PSOE that produced the only President of the region that weren’t from PNV.



Despite having better offers, he later focused again on Albiol, the first politician to give him an opportunity and helped him and PP to win the city after decades of socialist dominance under the same Law and Order motto.

Cleaning Badalona was the controversial motto of Xavier Albiol



Later he became advisor of Juan Monago, from PP Extremadura. He exploited his candidate personality to the bone making him wear a fireman suit(Monago was a fireman) and talking about his father job who was a policeman. The explosive campaign gave PP the control of the region for the first time ever, unseating the socialists. Redondo was rewarded with a government job in the region and had a decent ammount of power. In fact, his detractors say it was really Ivan Redondo who was calling the shots and he’s behind lgbt laws championed by Monago or the president’s position in favour of abortion. Some in the region media also attacked him for pressuring journalists and attempts to dictate headlines.

Monago in a fireman suit

Redondo’s achievements were recognized and Pablo Casado, back then, vice secretary-general of PP tried to bring Ivan Redondo to Rajoy inner circle to help the party in the general elections. This move was rejected by some of Rajoy close advisors who prefered a classical party figure to help in the campaign. The maverick spin-doctor turn himself to Sanchez and start informally advising him in the primary elections against Susana Diaz. Redondo job was appreciated and was brought to Sanchez inner circle after the victory. He was crucial in reviving the popularity of the embattled socialist leader.



Redondo was the key advisor of Sanchez in the motion of no-confidence presented by PSOE that outflanked the PP and dethroned Rajoy. Sanchez rewarded the sagacity and good counsel of Redondo with the powerful position of Chief of Staff and his influence has been noted both at a personal level regarding the Prime-minister but also in terms of policy. The photo of Pedro Sanchez cuddling his dog for example was posted to humanize him; the decision of taking the refugee’s in aquarius boat served also to give a statesman profile to Pedro Sanchez.



But what can we say about the style of Ivan Redondo? First thing is that wherever he works, his clients achieve something unprecedented. Happened with Basque PP who made a deal with PSOE that produced the first non nationalist region president. Happened with Albiol and Monago who were elected to position their party never held. Happened with Sanchez who was the first president elected through a motion of no confidence.





The unprecedented achievements he is connected with can only be related with his risk taking personality; the motion of no-confidence of PSOE and his video of Albiol in the early stages of his carreer proved to be a sucess, but they were huge gambles that could seriously damage the political carreer of his bosses and himself.



He is also very low-profile and doesn’t mind that his clients take credit for good things he does. It’s rare to find a picture of him with a politician he worked with. He likes to manage everything from the backstage, as he likes to say ‘’politics is the art of the unseen’’. He is very comfortable pulling the strings in the media where he cultivated valuable friendships.



Above all, he is ruthless and pragmatic. He start working for PP but end up helping Sanchez getting into government. He ran a campaign considered by many as xenophobic but took advantage of the aquarius situation and call international media to enhance Sanchez profile outside.



A colaborator of him compared his former colleague to a football coach who adapts his political philosophy and ideas to each politician he advises and ends up taking the most of everyone.







His independent profile made many in PSOE suspicious; after all Redondo decisively contributed for some PSOE disasters but his Maverick profile actually helps established parties, who are often closed in their own political circles, to modernize their political communication and put the party machine working in a more efficient way.