Pablo Iglesias in Madrid Caja Magica, December 13, 2015. Demotix/jorge gonzalez. All rights reserved.Podemos emerged as the instrument of a new multitude that gestated and developed in the weeks of 15-M and after. That multitude did not consist in an aggregated set of demands, or a collection of fragments, nor was it already a constituted ‘people’. Instead, the multitude that emerges with 15-M is a specific kind of invention, which nevertheless corresponds to the definition of a political multitude – something that has existed ever since Spinoza and which, contra Hobbes, sees it as a heterogeneous multiplicity with variable contours which is nonetheless capable of acting as one mind, to organise itself functionally, aggregate, disperse and take decisions. This means that Podemos as an instrument, rather than being a prosthesis for this multitude, should be conceived as a weapon, a necessary weapon for it to be able to navigate this fluid and unstable historical conjuncture.
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As an instrument, Podemos is not, and cannot be, the ‘better half’ of a multitude in search of its weapon. The coming together between Podemos and multitude would be better described as a necessary, yet aberrant and monstrous relation – inorganic, artificial and unsustainable over time (a kairos fugit). It is also a dangerous relationship as it carries with it the possibility of producing the decomposition of the multitude created with 15-M.
