Preceded by Position established Name Pablo Turrion | Role Spanish Politician Party Podemos | |
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Full Name Pablo Manuel Iglesias Turrion Born 17 October 1978 (age 45)
Madrid, Spain ( 1978-10-17 ) Political party Communist Youth Union of Spain (Before 1999)
Podemos (2014–present) Alma mater Complutense University
University of Bologna
Charles III University
European Graduate School Parents Luisa Turrion, Javier Iglesias Education Complutense University of Madrid Similar People Albert Rivera, Pedro Sanchez, Inigo Errejon, Mariano Rajoy, Juan Carlos Monedero Profiles | ||
Pablo Manuel Iglesias Turrión, known as either Pablo Iglesias or Pablo Iglesias Turrión ([ˈpaβlo iˈɣlesjas tuˈrjon]; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish politician who has been the Secretary-General of Podemos since 2014.
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Before then, he was a lecturer in political science at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was elected to the European Parliament in the 2014 elections as the leading candidate of the newly formed party Podemos, along with four other members of his party. He hosts the internet programs La Tuerka and Fort Apache, and frequently appears in Spanish political TV shows.
Early life and education
Iglesias was born in Madrid, where he studied with honours at Complutense University. He received his degree in law (2001), including an Erasmus term at the University of Bologna, before turning to political science and administration, receiving his licentiate (2004), teaching certificate (2004), DEA (2005) and PhD (2008). His doctoral dissertation was on political conflict and peace processes, titled "Post-National Collective Action", under Heriberto Cairo Carou. Iglesias has also obtained a Master of Humanities (2010, honours) from Charles III University with a thesis regarding a political analysis of cinema, and a Master of Arts in Communication (2011, distinction) from the European Graduate School in Switzerland, where he studied political theory, cinema and psychoanalysis.
Academic career
He was the acting head teacher of political science in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he was named honorary professor in September 2014. He defended in 2008 his dissertation, which was supervised by Heriberto Cairo Carou, and whose subject was collective political action in post-millennial political history. Since 2002, he has published more than 30 articles in academic journals.
Media work
Iglesias presents the political debate TV shows Fort Apache for the Iranian government's Hispan TV and La Tuerka while he is also the director of programming at the production company Con Mano Izquierda (With the Left Hand). He has also written articles in publications such as Público, Kaosenlared, Diagonal and Rebelion.org.
Television
In 2003, he started a TV programme on Tele K, La Tuerka (produced by Producciones CMI).
In November 2012, he appeared as a commentator in an episode of the news show La Sexta Columna titled Rajoy año I: La realidad era esto, which analyzed the first year of Mariano Rajoy's government. In May 2013, Iglesias was invited to the political talk show El Gato al Agua, broadcast by Intereconomía, to talk about the political demonstration Rodea el Congreso. After this participation, he started to receive requests from other media and became a frequent guest to political talk shows like El Gato al Agua, El cascabel al gato (13 TV), La Sexta Noche (La Sexta), Las Mañanas de Cuatro (Cuatro) and La Noche en 24 Horas (24 Horas).
In October 2013, he was given the "Enfocados" prize by the Department of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication of the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid for his contribution to social change, which he shared with Ignacio Escolar and Jordi Évole in the individual category.
Political career
Iglesias positions himself on the left-wing. He was a member of the Communist Youth Union of Spain from 1992 to 1999 and was part of the anti-globalisation movement.
Since the early-2000s, Iglesias has been involved with the Center for Political and Social Studies Foundation (CEPS) and is currently on the executive board of the organization. During the 2000s, Iglesias was involved in Latin American politics for the CEPS Foundation and monitored elections in Paraguay and Bolivia while acting as a strategic analysis advisor for the government of Venezuela and as a consultant for the government of Bolivia. Iglesias has stated that he admires the policies of Hugo Chávez.
In January 2014, he presented, along with other people and groups, the Podemos movement, as a participant political force in the 2014 European elections. He was elected to the head of the party list in open primary elections.
He was then elected as a Member of the European Parliament.
On 25 June 2014, GUE/NGL, the European Parliament group Podemos joined, elected him as the candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament. As an MEP, Iglesias was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and vice-chair of the Delegation for relations with Mercosur. He was also a substitute for the Subcommittee on Security and Defence and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
On 27 October 2015 he resigned his seat in the European Parliament in order to focus on the campaign for the 2015 Spanish general election.
Personal life
Iglesias was named after the 19th century "father" of Spanish socialism and founder of the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE), Pablo Iglesias Posse. He is the son of Luisa Turrión, a lawyer for the trade union CCOO, and Javier Iglesias, a labor inspector and retired history professor, and, according to Iglesias, former member of the Frente Revolucionario Antifascista y Patriota. Pablo's grandfather Manuel Iglesias was sentenced to death in Francoist Spain, but the sentence was not carried out because the accusations against him were proved to be false. His mother's grandfather was one of the founders of the General Union of Workers (UGT), one of the largest workers unions in Spain.