Though left-wing populism has lived an ephemeral life in Southern Europe, we know surprisingly little about its policy record in office. Widely considered one of the main faces of left-wing populism, Podemos' participation in a coalition government (2020–2023) provides a relevant case-study in this regard. Substantively, this article asks to what extent it managed to shape the government's program and whether its proposals translated into policy output. Methodologically, it conducts a pledge-based analysis of the coalition agreement, comparing it with party manifestos and tracing the fulfilment of pledges originating from Podemos. Results suggest that, in line with coalition pay-off theories, Podemos secured a non-trivial share of distinctive commitments, roughly consistent with proportional bargaining expectations. It also shows that its influence is most concentrated in socio-economic fields such as housing and labour market reform, while pledges related to the 'populist core businesses' of corruption, transparency, and democratic reform were mostly unfulfilled. Overall, this case is difficult to reconcile with simple 'failure-in-government' narratives, while also confirming the conventional wisdom that 'host ideology' matters more than populism per se.
Mariana S. Mendes (Sun,) studied this question.