This Tuesday, May 5, 2021, the leader of the Podemos political party, Pablo Iglesias, announced his resignation from all his positions as well as his withdrawal from political life.This decision comes after the elections of the Madrid community, where the purple formation was very far from the victory commanded by the Popular Party, at the hands of Isabel Ayuso in the Community of Madrid.
It ended up being the fifth political force after the aforementioned PP, Mas Madrid, PSOE and VOX. Podemos only managed to get 7.2% of the votes , which translates into 10 total seats.
After the electoral failure, Pablo Iglesias appeared before the media to explain the decisions that have forced him to resign:“I have become the scapegoat that mobilizes the effects most contrary to democracy.”This decision was also motivated “by an unprecedented increase in aggressiveness, both from the PP and from the extreme right, and an unprecedented normalization of fascist speeches in the media.”
Compensation according to time in office
After his resignation, the leader will be entitled to compensation of 5,316 euros per month.According to the regulations, this compensation may be received the same time that the position has been held; that is, 15 months.
The controversy, launched by the newspaper Ok Diario, is in contradiction with the Ethical Code of the purple formation,where it is clearly stated that the positions “may not receive any remuneration or severance pay of any kind once their appointment to the position has ended.”
Likewise, the aforementioned code clarifies that “those who prior to the position were holders of a public job will definitively return to the last position of which they were definitive holders or another equivalent position in terms of salary, dedication, area of ​​activity and location, having to join to him within the periods established for taking office in the job provision processes (…) and those who were not holders of a public job will receive the unemployment benefit that corresponds to them”.
By renouncing his act in the Madrid Assembly,Pablo Iglesias is in the position of being able to collect compensation;As it is initially incompatible, it is with another salary, whether public or private. Similarly, the remuneration will be incompatible with other remuneration from private activity.
Pablo Iglesias already referred to these accusations at the time in an interview on TVE, given that after having been a member of the Government it is a remuneration that corresponds to him by right: “It is a right that corresponds to me and during the time that I am not a deputy Well, as many other former ministers and former vice presidents have done, it is the income that I am going to have .”
The now ex-leader of the political formation clarified where the accusations came from:“When there are ministers of Podemos, those ministers go in the same cars as the ministers of the PP or the PSOE , they have the same type of protection and receive the same salaries, although we donate a part of the salary that the others do not (… .) There are some who think that we would not have the right to the same as the rest who have been in government positions before. And we must understand that this cannot be.”
