Miriam González launches Democracia 21 in Madrid, standing only in Madrid and Barcelona

The launch in Madrid

On Saturday 10 October, Miriam González Durántez formally presented Democracia 21 at the Domo 360 venue in Madrid, where the organisers said 700 people attended. Each attendee received a pair of socks, a gift meant to illustrate the slogan "Darle la vuelta a la política como un calcetín" (turn politics around like a sock). Her husband, the former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, and their three children sat in the front row. ABC reported that the event went ahead despite access problems caused by a race near the venue. González confirmed that she will be the party's candidate for the presidency of the government at the general election on 29 November.

In her speech she described a political system that has degenerated in the interests of those who govern, and said young people have come to loathe politics. She told the audience:

We are many in this country who are fed up with voting with our noses plugged, seeing that everyone does the same things, taking advantage of the system and forgetting about the people.

Who stands and where

Democracia 21 will stand only in the Madrid and Barcelona constituencies at this first election, and González said it will run in all provinces at later elections because it is a national project. The team presented includes Maricé Sánchez-Macián and Juan González-Barba as vice presidents, with Manel Rodríguez as director general. Federico Quevedo, a journalist, opened the presentation. Former members of Unión, Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) attended, including former deputy Rafael Calduch and MEPs Fernando Maura and Beatriz Becerra, who has worked with González since 2023 on the España Mejor platform. In an interview with EL PAÍS, she said the party will not stand in every constituency and that it is choosing where to run sensibly, given the early election, and that its funding depends on affiliations because the law is strict for new parties.

Housing and economic pledges

Housing is central to the platform. González proposes a national plan to build neighbourhoods based on cross-party agreements that give ten years of legal security, and she blamed administrations for choking the supply of homes with bureaucracy. To illustrate the affordability gap, she said that if young people earn 1,300 euros, the most they should spend on rent or housing is 350 euros. She proposed removing all housing taxes for under-35s. She also urged Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo to travel together to Brussels to negotiate that the more than 10,000 million euros of unspent Next Generation funds go entirely to building affordable housing. Addressing young voters directly, she said:

Young people have to know that with their effort and their work they can go further. We are going to put the system on their side, not against them.

Institutional reform

The programme sets out a two-term limit on all mandates and an express reform of the Constitution. González proposed that the public prosecutor answer to Parliament, not to the president of the government, and that the General Council of the Judiciary be depoliticised with respect to parties and politicised judges' associations. Other proposals include specialised corruption courts, the removal of aforamientos, cuts to party subsidies, and a requirement that deputies return to their constituencies at least every two weeks. She also said that no one in Democracia 21 would "dip a hand in the till" and that the party would take "brave decisions even if they are difficult".

Positioning and background

González rejected the labels that El País used for the party, saying she does not define Democracia 21 as a centre party and does not fully understand what the term means. She added that she does not define it as liberal in Spain, although she sees liberalism as setting limits on power. She said:

I do not define myself as a centre party, I do not even really understand what that is, nor the question of right and left.

Her career has been in Brussels, London and the United States, in international trade, including a period on the European Commission's panel of arbitrators for trade disputes. She has also held board positions at UBS Europe and Acciona, and she has been closely linked to Inspiring Girls, a project born in the United Kingdom that connects girls with professional female role models.