Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Miriam González Durántez Launches New Centrist Party in Spain

THE GUARDIAN: Wife of former British deputy PM Nick Clegg promises liberal alternative to the PP and Socialists before snap election>

Miriam González Durántez at the launch of Democracia21. The new party is promising a ‘radical political cleanup’, including greater political transparency. Photograph: Alejandro Martinez Velez/Reuters

The Spanish lawyer Miriam González Durántez has launched a new liberal, centrist party, vowing to clean up politics and give voters an alternative to the dominant socialist and conservative parties as the country gears up for next month’s snap general election.

González Durántez, an ex-EU adviser who is married to the former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, says her new party, Democracia21, will offer a modern, transparent kind of politics that “doesn’t feed on fear, insults or nostalgia”.

Democracia21’s manifesto accuses both the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and the rightwing People’s party (PP) of squandering decades of government for short-term political ends.

“In the meantime: housing became unaffordable, young people left, bureaucracy grew like a religion, and bickering took the place of governing,” it says. “Old-school politics turned every problem into a narrative – and every solution into an electoral threat.” » | Sam Jones in Madrid | Tuesday, October 13, 2026