Ahora Madrid

Madrid Now Ahora Madrid
Leader	Manuela Carmena
Founded	6 March 2015 (2015-03-06)
Dissolved	26 May 2019 (2019-05-26)
Merger of	Podemos CpM[1] PCE-PCM[2] Equo PUM+J
Succeeded by	Más Madrid
Headquarters	C/ Montera, 32[3] 28013, Madrid
Ideology	Participatory democracy
Political position	Left-wing
Colours	Persian green
Website
ahoramadrid.org
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

Ahora Madrid (English: Madrid Now) was a citizen platform of popular unity,^[4] formed as an instrumental party without organic internal life,^[5] in order to stand for the municipal elections of 2015 in the city of Madrid.

For this project, Ganemos Madrid, a citizen platform inspired by Guanyem Barcelona (now called Barcelona en Comú) and the parties Equo, Podemos and PUM+J joined forces.^[6]

History

On 28 June 2014 "Municipalia", later renamed Ganemos Madrid, appeared. The goal of this platform was to gain Madrid as a citizens' horizontal initiative formed by a confluence of people, groups, parties and social movements. On 29 January 2014, Ganemos Madrid confirmed that their goal was the confluence of different left-wing forces to stand for the municipal elections as an instrumental party.

On 6 March Ahora Madrid was presented as the instrumental party formed by this confluence of citizens, associations, movements and parties. Although the most members of United Left Madrid (IUCM) supported participating in Ahora Madrid, after an internal crisis, the majority sector, including the Communist Party of Madrid and a group of independents that later founded Convocatoria por Madrid, decided to abandon IUCM and join Ahora Madrid. IUCM finally decided not to participate in Ahora Madrid or similar lists.^[7]

On 30 March the results of the primaries, in which over 15 000 people participated through online voting, were made public. Manuela Carmena was elected by a large majority as candidate for mayor, Nacho Murgui (ex-president of the Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid) ranks second in the list, Inés Sabanés (Equo) 3rd, Mauricio Valiente (exIUCM, Communist Party of Madrid) 4th, Rita Maestre (Podemos and Youth Without a Future.) 5th, Pablo Carmona (Ganemos Madrid) 6th, Marta Higueras 7th, Pablo Soto 8th, Celia Mayer (Ganemos Madrid and member of the Patio Maravillas) 9th and Jorge García (exIU, Convocatoria por Madrid) 10th.

In the 2015 Madrid municipal election, it gained 20 seats and was the second most voted party behind People's Party,^[8] which gained 21 seats.

The 20 city councillors were elected in the following order: Manuela Carmena, Nacho Murgui, Inés Sabanés, Mauricio Valiente, Rita Maestre, Pablo Carmona, Marta Higueras, Pablo Soto, Celia Mayer, Jorge García Castaño, Marta Gómez Lahoz, Guillermo Zapata, Rommy Arce, Carlos Sánchez Mato, Montserrat Galcerán, Francisco Pérez Ramos, Esther Gómez, Javier Barbero, Yolanda Rodríguez and José Manuel Calvo.

The elaboration of the program was open to all citizens and a lot of the suggestions were included in the final version of the program.^[9]

The primaries also covered a vote to choose which of the measures from the program of Ahora Madrid should take priority and "should be introduced within the first 100 days of municipal administration".^[10]

Electoral performance

City Council of Madrid
Election	Vote	%	Score	Seats	+/–	Leader	Status
2015	519,721	31.84	2nd	20 / 57	20	Manuela Carmena	Government

Ideology

According to AFP, "Ideologically, Ahora Madrid has its roots in anarchist and libertarian movements."^[11]

References

1. "Te invitamos a participar en el proceso de primarias de Ahora Madrid para elegir la candidatura a la alcaldia de Madrid". Archived from the original on 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2015-05-12.
2. El Partido Comunista de Madrid rompe con IU en la región y apuesta por la "unidad popular".
3. León, Pablo (24 May 2015). "Mientras tanto, en la sede de Ahora Madrid". El País.
4. "The party presented by Ganemos Madrid will not have organic life" (in Spanish). eldiario.es. 2015-01-29.
5. "The primaries of Ahora Madrid start this Monday without candidate names even on the table" (in Spanish). infoLibre.es. 2015-03-17.
6. "Inés Sabanés will stand in the primary election of Ahora Madrid" (in Spanish). Cuarto Poder. 2015-03-09.
7. IU-CM rechaza concurrir con Ahora Madrid y Valiente presenta su lista.
8. "Resultadoslocales2015". Archived from the original on 2015-05-25. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
9. "Programa colaborativo". ahoramadrid.org. Archived from the original on 2015-08-29. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
10. Ediciones El País (30 March 2015). "Manuela Carmena encabezará la lista de Ahora Madrid". EL PAÍS.
11. Cancela-Kieffer, Michaela (13 June 2015). "Indignados mayors take power in Madrid and Barcelona". Yahoo News. Retrieved 9 September 2024.