The dynamics that Pablo Iglesias imposed on Can in his war against Inigo Errejón back in 2017 they now extend to the broadcasting company that he created himself, Network Channel. The former vice president of the Government has fired his former colleague, Juan Carlos Monedero, one of the ideologues of the purple party, after he publicly questioned the conversion of this platform into an official Podemos channel. This departure adds to the fall from grace of Sergi Gregoriwho was Iglesias’ star signing who ran the El Tablero program until last week, when he was permanently removed.
It has been his own Purse who has announced that his program En la Frontera will no longer be broadcast on Canal Red. A message in which he has also once again referred to the role of Iglesias’ company around the party: “No one can deny the siege of Podemos and it is Canal Red’s willingness to close ranks in the face of the siege is evident. I don’t think it is the most effective, but I understand it,” he noted, before declaring himself “convinced of unity” and issuing a warning: “The enemies are in other places“.
Church Trenches
This departure is announced a few days after the channel’s former star presenter, Sergi Gregori, has been relegated in the chain. Gregori was a Iglesias personal bet, which counted on him to found the platform and promised to give him his own program. A program that he directed and presented since the beginning of broadcasts and from which he has now been removed, just ten months after the network premiered.
Canal Red was born in March 2023, in the midst of strong tensions between Can and Add. The negotiations between Podemos and Sumar for the formation of the electoral lists led to Pablo Iglesias converted his company into a political actor who played in favor of his party, pressing through his channels in support of the formation, and his partner, Irene Montero, who faced a veto on the lists.
The Iglesias’ company turned into a trench, and four months after the launch of the channel, Gregori was partially removed from the program, which went from presenting daily to only three days a week. Since last week, the presenter has been completely away from the screenand last week he presented the network’s last program, in which he continues his writing duties.
The crisis in Canal Red has exploded into the air this January, after the broadcast medium has acted as the official channel of Podemos, allowing Iglesias to announce through its platform such relevant decisions as the break with Sumar and the departure from the purple ones to the Mixed group or the pact between Ione Belarra and the PSOE to save the Government’s anti-crisis decree. A role that shows the prominence that the former leader still holds, who continues to be the unofficial leader of the party.
Iglesias-Monedero clash
A few days ago, the Podemos ideologue defined Canal Red as a “party organ”, as he stated in an interview in El Mundo. “Canal Red has to be de-podemized and Podemos has to be de-channeled.” “It is a very political organ and that is not good for either Canal Red or Podemos. It is not good for Canal Red because it greatly limits its influence and it is not good for Podemos because it has not completely freed itself from that forceful opinion of the convinced that Canal Red always expresses,” he pointed out, defending expanding the space to which Iglesias’ broadcasting company was directed. “I think that Canal Red has to de-podemize itself. And Podemos has to dechannel.”
These statements revolted Pablo Iglesias, who last week took the opportunity to respond to Monederothrough an interview in Público, where he criticized Monedero for his statements and admitted having “made a mistake” by “having bet” by those who would later “speak ill” of the party, in reference to their former teammate.
“How terrible to have bet on people who is then able to go to a media outlet unleash a crack against your party. How bad we have had to do for someone to have gone to a set of La Sexta or to El Mundo to speak ill of your country. “We had to make a mistake in something.” “Choosing people is not always right,” the former leader admitted in the interview.
