Enemies or Colleagues? The 15M and the Podemos’ hipothesys

Abstract

Through an ethnography and participant observation in Madrid, Malaga and Cordoba about 15M (since 2011) and Podemos (since 2014) the article analyzes the tensions that cross the attempted to take the indignant movement to political institutions. We show that these tensions are understood from the place and the meaning of consensus in the movement of the indignados, partially hidden by the criticism of the lack of effectiveness of the movement and its refusal to adopt a political strategy based on the institutional representation. Through consensus, the 15M unveils, besides the concept of Multitude to which was primarily associated, an irrepresentable imaginary of a society of equals. If we understand the consensus as the key element of indignados’ political significance, we wonder how the hegemonic translation proposed by Podemos could be claimed from that imaginary.