Íñigo Errejón announces that he is leaving politics. «The pace and way of life on the political front line, for a decade, has worn out my physical health, my mental health and my affective and emotional structure. “I think this is something that everyone who is in this position for a long time experiences to a greater or lesser extent,” he says in a statement posted on social media. And he concludes with an enigmatic phrase: «I, after an intense and accelerated political cycle, have reached the limit of the contradiction between the character and the person.
Until now Sumar’s spokesperson in Congress and president of Más País began his political career in 2014, when he founded Podemos together with Carolina Bescansa, Pablo Iglesias and Juan Carlos Monedero. After almost a decade, he leaves his seat and leaves national politics. The 40-year-old political scientist by profession defends that he needs to move away from the “demands” and “rhythms” of the political front line. «I have been working on a personal process and psychological support for some time, but the truth is that I need to take care of myself», he maintains in his statement.
«In recent months, and more insistently in recent weeks, I have been thinking that I had to make some important decisions. Today has come the day to do it», says Íñigo Errejón to announce that he is leaving politics. «I have been engaged and politically active practically since I can remember. That’s my way of being in the world. But for ten years I have held positions of public representation in institutional politics and of very high visibility and media exposure. I have had the privilege of defending the ideas that I consider the most beautiful and fair, and of doing so during one of the most intense, but also hardest, decades of Spanish politics. That entails many experiences, learnings and reasons for pride,” he adds.
Íñigo Errejón maintains that a decade in national politics, as is the case of his career, “generates a type of life, a daily life, a subjectivity, a type of links with the public sphere, with fame and with others.” that take their toll». «The pace and way of life on the political front line, for a decade, has worn out my physical health, my mental health and my affective and emotional structure. “I think this is something that everyone who is in this position for a long time experiences to a greater or lesser extent,” he continued in his statement.
“I hope to repair my mistakes”
Sumar’s until now spokesperson in Congress assures that on the front line of national politics “one survives and is more effective” if one behaves by emancipating oneself “from the care, empathy and needs of others.” “This generates a toxic subjectivity that in the case of men, patriarchy multiplies, with co-workers, with organizational colleagues, with emotional relationships and even with oneself,” he argues.
«I, after an intense and accelerated political cycle, have reached the limit of the contradiction between the character and the person. Between a neoliberal way of life and being a spokesperson for a group that defends a new, more just and humane world. The ideological struggle is also a struggle to build better, more careful, more supportive and, therefore, freer ways of life and relationships. You can’t ask people to vote differently than how you behave in your daily life», highlights Íñigo Errejón in his statement.
The co-founder of Podemos justifies that he is leaving national politics by claiming that he must work “on a personal process and psychological support.” “I have been working on a personal process and psychological support for some time, but the truth is that to advance in it and to take care of myself, I need to abandon institutional politics, its demands and its rhythms,” he argues.
— Íñigo Errejón (@ierrejon) October 24, 2024
Íñigo Errejón resigns as spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, leaving his seat in the Lower House and all the political responsibilities he had in the party led by Yolanda Díaz and in Más País. “I thus announce, as I have already communicated to my colleagues in charge, my resignation as spokesperson for the Plurinational Parliamentary Group of Sumar, I leave my seat in Congress and all my political responsibilities,” he points out.
Despite this, he affirms that he will continue “to be active and committed, but for me this institutional political stage is coming to an end and I hope to contribute in this way to the generational renewal and renewal of cadres and ideas that the democratic and popular forces need.”
«I finish the most important stage of my life. A hard and exciting stage. With successes of which I am proud and errors that I hope to contribute to repairing with this decision. A fraternal hug to all the colleagues of all these years. Cheers”, Íñigo Errejón concludes his statement.