In 2014 a new progressive party, Podemos, emerged on the Spanish political scene. Within just over two years it had become the country-s third-biggest party, winning a slew of seats in parliament and regularly making headline news. While some see Podemos as the saviour of Spanish democracy, others have accused it of corrosive populism. But what few have noticed is that behind its distinctive rhetoric lies a thinker closely associated with Germany-s Third Reich: Carl Schmitt.
Why has an ostensibly progressive and avowedly anti-fascist political party taken up Schmitt-s ideas? The puzzle only deepens when we learn of Schmitt-s links with Francisco Franco-s dictatorship. In The Dark Side of Podemos?, Booth and Baert explain why Schmittian theory resonated with Podemos- founders. In doing so, the authors position Podemos and the ideas that guide it within the context of recent Spanish history and ongoing politics of memory, revealing a story about how personal and political
