Interview by Eoghan Gilmartin Tommy Greene

This week’s regional elections in Catalonia bookend a turbulent year in Spanish politics. It began with Podemos’s heated party congress in the spring and was followed by the re-election of Pedro Sánchez as PSOE (Spain’s Socialist Party) leader, with the summer months dominated by speculation over a possible future pact between the two parties. A predictable string of Partido Popular (PP) corruption scandals then provided the backdrop to the attempted referendum in Catalonia on October 1, which has consumed the political agenda at year’s end.

The Spanish right have capitalized on the thorny complexities thrown up by the Catalan independence debate with a renewed campaign of nationalist fervor. Most polls indicate significant electoral gains for right-wing party Ciudadanos in Thursday’s election, while En Comu Podem, Podemos’s Catalonia affiliate, and radical independentists the CUP are struggling to make a breakthrough.

Meanwhile, the road ahead for Podemos nationally remains unclear. The party’s attempt to walk a tightrope during the crisis — endorsing Catalonia’s right to decide but proposing instead a new plurinational Spain — has drawn vitriol from the country’s right-wing establishment without managing to command significant support inside or outside the region.

But Pablo Iglesias remains defiant, arguing that his party’s proposal to the crisis in Catalonia remains the only viable way out of the deadlock. Podemos, he says, still offers Spain its best hope of a break with its political elites and their crisis-ridden regime. He spoke with Eoghan Gilmartin and Tommy Greene about his views on the Catalan crisis, the challenges it poses the country’s left, and Podemos’s enduring desire to transform Spain by winning state power.