Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said that the Irish left must take lessons from Spain’s left-wing government.
Bacik was speaking after attending a meeting of socialist and progressive parties in Barcelona, hosted by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Since taking office in June 2018, Sanchez has become an outlier in European politics, a left-wing head of state when the rest of the continent undergoes a rightward drift.
Within the last week, Sanchez has announced amnesty for 500,000 undocumented immigrants, in addition to the Spanish state’s progressive stance on trans issues.
Sanchez gathered leaders and politicians from various left-wing parties at the event, with Bacik in attendance alongside Brazilian president Lula De Silva, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, and SDLP MP Claire Hanna.
Addressing the event, Sanchez said, “we will twist the arm of the people who think they are completely untouchable; the billionaires with greed that is unlimited. Those who speculate with houses of people.”
Sanchez said that what he did in Spain could be done elsewhere.
“When we progressives reach government, it is not to serve the elites — we put them in their place.”
Bacik said that Ireland can learn lessons from Spain, which has Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers Party (Labour’s sister party) in coalition with various left-wing parties since 2020.
Sanchez’s coalition consists of his party (Labour’s Spanish analogue) along with Sumar, an electoral alliance of other smaller left-wing parties ranging from the traditional centre-left to the far-left, and smaller Spanish regionalist parties.
Sanchez’s work with Sumar is of note to the Irish left, as Labour’s sister party are in coalition with Podemos, a party which was founded on an anti-austerity platform in the wake of the 2008 economic crash.
In the mid-2010s, Podemos came from obscurity to finish 3rd in the 2015 and 2016 general elections, forcing the Socialist Workers’ Party to the left and into a coalition with Podemos in 2019.
Despite concerns of instability and ideological fracture points, Sanchez’s coalition has governed consistently since the November 2019 general election.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
The Labour leader said, “as billions around the world are impacted by the economic turmoil caused by Trump’s illegal war and chaotic trade agenda, it has never been more important for global progressives to gather to debate solutions and exchange ideas.”
“Reactionary right-wing forces are driving higher prices and doubling down on fossil fuels. That’s why Ireland must learn important lessons from left-wing governments in countries like Spain that have already made the decision to invest in renewables, curb climate emissions and deliver cheaper electricity, ensuring families and businesses are now insulated from price shocks due to war in the Middle East.”
Bacik said she was “privileged” to speak on climate panel alongside Guy Ryder, Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Frederico Assis, Special Envoy to the Brazilian COP30.
“Our panel recognised that climate is a class issue and the climate crisis is a global emergency that we can only address through working together, to ensure a just green transition that delivers secure energy and that protects our biodiversity and nature, our environment and habitats.”
“Just as Spanish Socialists have led a renewables revolution based on solar power, so too we in Ireland must deliver a renewables revolution by harnessing wind power – onshore and offshore. Our global progressive gathering has committed to working at the international and national level to achieve radical change on climate, housing, workers’ rights, women’s rights and the cost of living – for all our communities.’
Labour’s relationship with the rest of the Connolly Coalition is somewhat strained – there were reservations within Labour last year over the party backing Catherine Connolly for President, but by the same token, the party has also criticised Sinn Féin for their more conservative stances on the likes of trans issues, immigration, the carbon tax, and fox hunting.
Bacik has spoken in the past about the need for Irish parties of the left to work together, saying, prior to the 2024 general election, that Labour would be “on the phone” to other parties of the left before talking to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which did indeed take place.
Labour opted to stay out of government in the aftermath of the 2024 general election, with the party believing that the deal with rural independents was already struck and that the government parties rejected Labour’s red-line coalition demand, the construction of a state housing agency.
Catherine Connolly’s first trip abroad as President was a trip to Spain to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez