Más Madrid


Más Madrid is the electoral platform formed around Manuela Carmena to succeed Ahora Madrid in Carmena's bid for re-election in the 2019 Madrid municipal election. After the crisis sparked in January 2019 by Íñigo Errejón's announcement to form a tandem with Carmena ahead of the 2019 Madrilenian regional election, the platform threatened to cause a major split in Podemos in the Community of Madrid.

History

On 10 September 2018, Mayor of Madrid Manuela Carmena announced that she would run for re-election in the 2019 Madrid municipal election under a new and different platform than the Ahora Madrid instrumental party under which she had successfully contested the 2015 election. Carmena wished for her candidacy to be formed by a trusted team made of members of her municipal government. This clashed with attempts from Podemos and United Left–Madrid to impose party member quotas in the lists, bringing a number of outsider partisan figures in detriment of Carmena's allies.
On 12 November 2018, all Podemos members in the City Council of MadridRita Maestre, José Manuel Calvo, Jorge Castaño, Esther Gómez, Marta Gómez Lahoz and Paco Pérezchose to withdraw from the party's scheduled primary election in the city and instead announced their will to contest the municipal election within Carmena's planned platform as independents, prompting Podemos to suspend them from party membership. Subsequently, on 22 November, Carmena officially launched her independent Más Madrid platform, which she defined as "innovative, independent, democratic and progressive" and formed "by individuals, not parties".
On 17 January 2019, it was announced that Carmena and Íñigo Errejón, Podemos candidate for President of the Community of Madrid and one of Podemos founders, had agreed to launch a joint platform to run at the 2019 Madrilenian regional election. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias announced later that day that he no longer considered Errejón as the party's candidate in the region for placing himself "outside Podemos" by renouncing the party's trademark, and that Podemos and IU would contest the regional election on their own even if that meant to compete against Más Madrid and, therefore, against Errejón. Podemos leaders also urged Errejón to resign his seat in the Congress of Deputies, considering his move as "deceitful" and "a betrayal" to the party. On 21 January, Errejón vacated his seat in the Congress, but still called for Podemos, IU and Equo to join the Más Madrid platform.
Some media outlets, such as El Confidencial, had tentatively predicted at first that Más Madrid would conform into a grouping of electors, as it aimed to distance itself from the umbrella of any political party. However, on 7 February 2019, it was formally registered as political party in the interior ministry.
The primary election process for electing the party's candidates was scheduled for 12–18 March, with Más Madrid establishing a difference in the method to select the candidates intended to assume executive responsibilities and the rest of the list, with the former being elected through a Borda count and a Dowdall count for the latter.
Although it became the largest party in the Madrid City Council after the 2019 Madrid City Council elections and becoming the most-voted party in fifteen out of the 21 Madrid districts, a coalition government of the People's Party and Ciudadanos with the external support of the far-right Vox elected José Luis Martínez-Almeida as new Mayor of Madrid, leading to former mayor Manuela Carmena announcing her resignation as councillor as she had previously stated during the electoral campaign.
On 1 July, the party elected its regional appointed member according to its results in the regional elections, with Eduardo Rubiño being the chosen Senator.
On 22 September, party members decided that Más Madrid should take part in the November 2019 snap general election called after the failure of government negotiations between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and Unidas Podemos. Party candidates would run under the Más País banner, officially launched on 25 September, which would include alliances with other parties from across Spain such as Equo, Coalició Compromís or Chunta Aragonesista. Several days later, the party name was officially changed in the register of political parties for "Más País".
On 10 July 2020, the membership of Más Madrid endorsed Mónica García's list to coordinate the executive board of Más Madrid, with Pablo Gómez Perpinyà and Manuela Bergerot as additional co-coordinators. Days later, the Rita Maestre-led list was chosen to coordinate the municipal executive board of the party in Madrid city.

Electoral performance

Assembly of Madrid

Madrid City Council

Symbols