Más País

Más País (MP),^[12] or More Country,^[1] was a political party in Spain. It was an electoral platform formed by Íñigo Errejón around Más Madrid in order to contest the November 2019 general election.^[13]

More Country Más País
Leader	Íñigo Errejón
Founded	25 September 2019 (2019-09-25)
Registered	30 September 2019 (2019-09-30) (as an electoral platform) 9 March 2021 (2021-03-09) (as a political party)
Dissolved	10 October 2023
Split from	Podemos[1]
Merged into	Movimiento Sumar[2] Más Madrid[2]
Headquarters	C/ Castillo de Ucles, 16 28037, Madrid
Membership	20,600 (2019)[3]
Ideology	Green politics[1] Direct democracy[1] Anti-globalization[1] Progressivism[4][5][6][7] Republicanism[8] Federalism[9]
Political position	Left-wing[10][11]
National affiliation	Sumar (2023)
Colors	Emerald
Website
maspais.es
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

The party was positioned on the left-wing of the political spectrum,^[14] and it promoted anti-globalisation, green politics, progressivism,^[15] women's^[16] and sexual minority rights^[17][18][19] and direct democracy.^[1]

History

The platform was announced on 22 September 2019 and was formally launched on 25 September, out of a desire of preventing dissatisfaction from centre-left voters over the failure in the government formation process between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Unidas Podemos to translate into a higher abstention rate.^[10][11] During the party's presentation, Errejón announced that it would avoid running in the smaller constituencies, where they would be unlikely to win any seat but could contribute to other left-of-centre parties—mainly PSOE and UP—losing out their own seats due to vote splitting.^[20]

On 26 September, it was revealed the platform had reached a tentative agreement with Equo in order to run jointly in a number of constituencies,^[21] a choice subsequently ratified by a majority of party members the next day,^{[lower-alpha 1]} in practice meaning the end of the Equo collaboration with Unidas Podemos despite some members, such as Juan López de Uralde, announcing their will to remain within Pablo Iglesias's coalition while leaving the party.^[22][23][24] On 27 September, the platform was joined by Podemos Region of Murcia leaders Óscar Urralburu and María Giménez, the party's only elected members in the Regional Assembly of Murcia, who subsequently left Podemos and their regional seats amid criticism of its national leader Pablo Iglesias.^[25][26][27]

On 30 September, just before the deadline for the registration of electoral coalitions, Más País legally took the form of a renaming of Más Madrid, while also modifying the latter's territorial scope from the Madrid region to a country-wide level.^[28][29] The political party registered two-way coalitions before the electoral authorities with Compromís ("Més Compromís"; in the constituencies of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia) and Equo (in Madrid, A Coruña, Pontevedra, Murcia, Asturias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas, Biscay, Cádiz, Granada, Málaga and Seville) as well as a three-way coalition with Chunta Aragonesista and Equo in Zaragoza.^[29]

On 4 October, it was announced that Carolina Bescansa, one of the Podemos co-founders, would be joining the party as their lead candidate for the constituency of A Coruña,^[30] a move which prompted further defections from Podemos' branch in Galicia into Más País.^[31] Three days later, right before the deadline for the registration of single-party lists, the party collected the minimum number of signatures (amounting to 0.1% of the electoral census) to run as a stand-alone party in the constituencies of Barcelona and the Balearic Islands.^[32] They oppose political gridlock.^[33]

In 2021, the party introduced a motion to legalise the recreational use of cannabis in Spain.^[34]

In 2023, former Podemos deputy Alberto Rodríguez Rodríguez announced that his new party, Proyecto Drago, would be joining the alliance ahead of the 2023 regional elections.

The party started a process to dissolve all of its branches (except Más Madrid, which would remain as an independent party) and integrate in Sumar (the political party created by Yolanda Díaz to gather independent figures in her electoral platform) after the 2023 Spanish general election.^[2]

Coalitions

Ahead of the November 2019 Spanish general election, the system of electoral alliances and coalitions established by Más País comprised the following parties:

Party		Notes
	More Country (Más País)	In Barcelona and Balearic Islands (plus Mallorca for the Senate).
	Equo (Equo)	In A Coruña, Asturias, Biscay, Las Palmas, Madrid, Murcia, Pontevedra, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
	Commitment Coalition (Compromís)	Within Més Compromís (in Alicante, Castellón and Valencia).
	Aragonese Union (CHA)	In Zaragoza.
	Andalusian People's Initiative (IdPA)[35]	In Cádiz, Granada, Málaga and Seville.

Electoral performance

Cortes Generales

Cortes Generales
Election	Leading candidate	Congress				Senate		Government
		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Seats	+/–
Nov. 2019	Íñigo Errejón	582,306	2.40 (#7)	3 / 350	3	0 / 208	0	Confidence and supply

Regional parliaments

Region	Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
Andalusia	2022	Within PorA		1 / 109	1	Opposition

Symbols

• 
  Main logo
• 
  Alternative logo
• 
  Logo for Más País–Equo lists
• 
  Logo for Más País–CHA–Equo lists

Notes

1. 58.7% in favour of joining Más País, 25.9% in favour of remaining in Unidas Podemos and 15.4% in favour of the party contesting the election on its own, with a 33.3% turnout.^[22]

References

1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
2. Cela, Daniel; Ortiz, Alberto (7 October 2023). "Más País inicia un proceso para integrar sus territorios excepto Madrid en el partido de Yolanda Díaz" [Más País begins a process to integrate its territories except Madrid into Yolanda Díaz's party]. elDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 October 2023.
3. EP (2019). Más País publica las listas de candidatos y sus inscritos tienen hasta las 22 horas para ratificarlas. eldiario.es.
4. "Errejón: "Más País tiene la tarea de impedir que los progresistas caigan en la abstención"". RTVE. 2019.
5. "Íñigo Errejón: "No me explico por qué a algunos les pone tan nerviosos la reivindicación de la igualdad"". RTVE. 2021.
6. "Más País pide al Gobierno acelerar la ley trans y lgtbi para frenar a Vox en Madrid". El Periódico de España. 2021.
7. "Más País tiene el programa más LGTBfriendly, según la asociación Arcópoli". The Objective. 2019.
8. "Más País apuesta por una república federal como nuevo modelo para España". 20 Minutos. 2019.
9. "Más País defiende un federalismo que respete "las peculiaridades específicas de Cataluña y Euskadi"". La Vanguardia. 2019.
10. Rodríguez-Pina, Gloria; Marcos, Ana (22 September 2019). "El partido de Errejón decide presentarse el 10-N". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
11. Marcos, Ana; León, Paco (25 September 2019). "Errejón se presenta al 10-N y promete poner sus diputados al servicio de un gobierno progresista". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
12. Nordsieck, Wolfram (15 May 2020). Parties and Elections in Europe: Parliamentary Elections and Governments Since 1945, European Parliament Elections, Political Orientation and History of Parties. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 549. ISBN 9783750481343.
13. Caballero, Fátima (20 November 2020). "Más País vuelve a llamarse Más Madrid: el partido de Errejón se repliega". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 November 2020.
14. • "Study: Countries making progress on the four-day working week". malaymail.com. Malay Mail. 10 July 2021.
    • "Should a 4-Day Working Week Trial Be Considered in UK?". einnews.com. EIN Presswire. 6 July 2021.
    • "Spain set to pilot four-day week as response to coronavirus pandemic". independent.co.uk. The Independent. 28 January 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18.
    • Heller, Fernando (2022-03-22). "Spanish PM urged to clarify new position on Western Sahara". www.euractiv.com. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
    • "Is Friday the new Saturday? Europe eyes a 4-day week". POLITICO. 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
15. Errejón: "Más País tiene la tarea de impedir que los progresistas caigan en la abstención" (in Spanish), 2019-11-10, retrieved 2022-10-31
16. "El país de los cuidados – Más País" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-11-12.
17. Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel (2021-12-07). "Más País pide al Gobierno acelerar la ley trans y lgtbi para frenar a Vox en Madrid". elperiodicodeespana (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-11-12.
18. "Más País tiene el programa más LGTBfriendly, según la asociación Arcópoli". theobjective.com (in Spanish). 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
19. "Un país de igualdad real – Más País" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-11-12.
20. Martiarena, Asier (27 September 2019). "Errejón formaliza su candidatura al 10-N aclamado por la militancia de Más País". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 September 2019.
21. Marcos, Ana (26 September 2019). "Más País y Equo llegan a un preacuerdo para presentarse en diez provincias". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
22. Piña, Raúl (27 September 2019). "Primera ruptura en Unidas Podemos: Equo decide aliarse con Más País de Íñigo Errejón". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 September 2019.
23. "Las bases de Equo deciden concurrir al 10N con Más País y Uralde y otros dirigentes abandonan el partido". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
24. "López de Uralde abandona Equo tras la decisión de concurrir con Errejón en las elecciones generales". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
25. "El exlíder de Podemos Murcia confirma que encabezará la lista de Más País por la región". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Agencias. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
26. Marcos, Ana; Vadillo, Virginia (27 September 2019). "Los dos diputados autonómicos de Podemos en Murcia se pasan al partido de Errejón". El País (in Spanish). Madrid/Murcia. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
27. Piña, Raúl (27 September 2019). "Primer golpe de Íñigo Errejón a Pablo Iglesias: le 'roba' la dirección de Podemos en Murcia". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 September 2019.
28. "Más Madrid cambia su nombre a Más País". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Madrid. EFE. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
29. "Más País concurrirá a las generales en 16 provincias" (in Spanish). RTVE. Europa Press. 3 October 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
30. Marcos, Ana; Vizoso, Sonia (4 October 2019). "Carolina Bescansa encabezará la lista de Errejón por A Coruña". El País (in Spanish). Madrid/A Coruña. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
31. "La candidatura de Bescansa con Más País provoca bajas en Podemos Galicia". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 5 October 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
32. Asuar Gallego, Beatriz (7 October 2019). "Errejón competirá contra Colau en Barcelona". Público (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
33. Íñigo Errejón: There is no alternative to gridlock but progressivism. El Confidencial
34. "What's the law on cannabis in Spain?". The Local (Spain edition). 29 April 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
35. "Profundizamos nuestra colaboración con Más País Andalucía-Equo". iniciativadelpuebloandaluz.org (in Spanish). Andalusian People's Initiative. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2020.

External links

• Más País on Twitter