The division within the left penalises Podemos, even in the Canary Islands. The party led by Irene Montero in these European Parliament elections dropped from fourth to seventh place in the Archipelago by running independently and not in coalition with other parties, as was the case in 2019. With around 23,203 ballots, or 3.43% of the votes, the purple party landed almost 4,000 votes behind Sumar Canarias, where the other forces they were in coalition with five years ago were represented link.
The combined votes of Podemos and Sumar Canarias reached 50,330 ballots, 7.44% of the votes. Five years ago, Unidas Podemos and Compromiso por Europa -where Nueva Canarias was included, which in this case ran with Yolanda Díaz’s party- received 131,623 ballots (14.67%), meaning that in the Archipelago, the alternative left to PSOE lost half of the support from 2019.
Which autonomous community supported Podemos the most?
However, this time Podemos alone obtained a higher average than the national level. Canarias was the fourth autonomous community that supported Irene Montero’s list the most, behind Catalonia (4.6%), Madrid (4.45%), and Asturias (3.8%). These figures did not help the highest-ranking Canarian candidate on the purple list, Ana Gloria S. Ruano, to become a Member of the European Parliament, as she was in the 20th position and they only managed to secure two seats.
“We have held our ground,” stated Ruano at the Podemos Canarias headquarters in Plaza del Pilar, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, without diving into the analysis of the results in Canarias. Despite the decline and the division of votes, Podemos will take two seats to the European Parliament, the same number they obtained within the Unidas Podemos Cambiar Europa coalition in 2019 -which collectively secured six Spanish MEPs-.
The head of Podemos’s list for the European elections, Irene Montero, assesses the electoral results of June 9 together with the party’s board of directors, on June 9, 2024 in MADRID. / EUROPA PRESS
The purple party’s performance was similar in both Canary provinces. In Las Palmas, they obtained 11,507 votes, 3.39% of the votes, and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife 11,471, 3.46%. In the latter, they managed to surpass Sumar by just 351 votes -in the Western region, they did not have the support of Nueva Canarias-. In the Eastern region, the difference was 4,200 votes against those of Irene Montero.
By Islands and municipalities
By Islands, Tenerife had the best results with 10,410 votes, 3.54%. In Gran Canaria, they secured 9,754 votes (3.42%), Fuerteventura 730 (3.15%), Lanzarote 1,165 (3.41%), La Palma 753 (2.7%), La Gomera 179 (2.94%), and El Hierro 129 (3.72%).
In terms of municipalities, the left-wing party still has one of its main strongholds in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In the most populous city in the Archipelago, they achieved 4.07% of the votes cast, equivalent to 5,297 votes. However, they fell behind Sumar (4.27%) and Coalición Canaria (4.16%). In Telde, on the other hand, they barely reached 3.1%.
Regarding the rest of the capitals, they obtained 3.29% of the votes in Arrecife and 3.07% in Puerto del Rosario. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, they secured 3.86%, and in La Laguna 5.26%; where with 3,021 votes, they were 200 votes short of Se acabó la fiesta, making the City of the Forwarders alongside the capital of Gran Canaria the two biggest vote banks for the purples.
Far from the Far-right
In the whole Archipelago, Podemos fell far behind the far-right. Both Vox, a party that climbed from seventh to third place, and Se acabó la fiesta, which in this case entered the Islands with 6.31% of the votes, will take three MEPs to the new European Parliament.
At a headquarters with a subdued atmosphere and with only about twenty activists -member of the Congress Noemí Santana was in Madrid– Ruano pointed out that “it is inevitable to analyse how far-right forces are gaining power in these elections”. The candidate mentioned that “it is worrying as it goes against what we defend from Podemos, social justice, people, or our clear proposal for peace”. She also highlighted “the onslaught of fascism in Europe”.
Concerning the strong emergence of those led by the investigated Alvise Pérez, they expressed being “concerned” about the outcome in the Islands. “We advocate for policies that serve to defend citizens’ rights, that discourse of anti-politics and politics as a circus, obviously has nothing to do with who we are,” she clarified.
