Miguel Urbán Crespo (; born 26 March 1980) is a Spanish activist and politician. A longstanding figure of the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

Izquierda Anticapitalista platform (renamed as

Anticapitalistas Anticapitalistas (, , ), known as Izquierda Anticapitalista (Anti-Capitalist Left, IA) until January 2015 and as Espacio Alternativo (Alternative Space, EA) from 1995 to November 2008, is a socialist political organisation that works as a confed ...

after 2015) and co-founder of Podemos, he served as

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 2015 to 2024, integrated within the

European United Left–Nordic Green Left The Left in the European Parliament (The Left) is a left-wing political group of the European Parliament established in 1995. Prior to January 2021 it was named the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (, GUE/NGL). The group is mainly compos ...

political group.

Biography

Born on 26 March 1980 en Madrid, he is son of Luis Miguel Urbán Fernández, a member of the trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League who suffered torture enacted by Billy el Niño in

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

. He studied history at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

(UCM), although he did not graduate. Urban worked as librarian in ''La Marabunta''. He ran in the 20th place of the Anticapitalist Left-Global Revolt list vis-à-vis the

2009 European Parliament election in Spain The 2009 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 7 June 2009, as part of the 2009 European Parliament election, EU-wide election to elect the Seventh European Parliament, 7th European Parliament. All 50 seats allocated to Spain ...

. He led the trotskyist

Anticapitalist Left Anticapitalistas (, , ), known as Izquierda Anticapitalista (Anti-Capitalist Left, IA) until January 2015 and as Espacio Alternativo (Alternative Space, EA) from 1995 to November 2008, is a socialist political organisation that works as a confe ...

(IA) list in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

to the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

in the 2011 general election.Candidaturas proclamadas para las elecciones al Congreso de los Diputados y al Senado
Boletín Oficial del Estado, 25 de octubre de 2011. One of the most prominent figures of IA, he helped to give form along 2013 through conversations with Pablo Iglesias to the main idea of the project that would become Podemos, tensions between the ''anticapitalistas'' and the UCM lecturers notwithstanding. On 17 January 2014, he was among the partakers of the event at the in

Lavapiés Lavapiés () is a historic neighbourhood in the city of Madrid, Spain. It is located in the administrative ward (barrio) of Embajadores in the downtown Centro District, southwest of neighbouring neighbourhood La Latina. The name literally mean ...

that presented the ''Mover ficha'' manifesto, the foundational text of Podemos. He was included 7th in the Podemos list for the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

. Following the renouncements of

Carlos Jiménez Villarejo Carlos Jiménez Villarejo (born 1935 in Málaga) is a former Spanish anti-corruption public prosecutor in office between 2000 and 2004. As a left-wing democrat jurist, he is specialized in the struggle against tax havens. He collaborates with A ...

and

Teresa Rodríguez María Teresa Rodríguez-Rubio Vázquez (; born 18 September 1981) is a Spanish politician. Active in United Left (Spain), United Left in her youth within the platform Espacio Alternativo, in 2008 the organization split from IU. She then particip ...

to their respective seats, Urbán became an MEP on 5 March 2015. He served as member of the

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

(ITRE; 2015) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET; 2015–2019), as well as in the

Subcommittee on Human Rights The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI, after the French name ''Sous-commission des droits de l'homme du Parlement européen'') is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of human ...

(DROI) the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. He ran as a Unidas Podemos Cambiar Europa electoral coalition list candidate for the

2019 European Parliament election in Spain The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, as part of the 2019 European Parliament election, EU-wide election to elect the Ninth European Parliament, 9th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to Spain ( ...

, being re-elected to the European Parliament for the 2019–2024 term. He joined the

Committee on Development The Committee on Development (Commission du développement, DEVE) is a committee of the European Parliament responsible for promoting, implementing and monitoring the development and cooperation policy of the European Union, notably talks with deve ...

(EVE) and the DROI as well as the Delegation for relations with Mercosur (DMER) and the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (DLAT). In February 2020, Urbán left Podemos alongside the platform Anticapitalistas, heir to Anticapitalist Left and hitherto integrated within the party. On 2 March 2022, he was one of 13 MEPs who voted against the resolution condemning the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

and for arming Ukraine. In January 2023, Miguel Urban commented on the ongoing Qatargate scandal, “The Qatargate scandal points to an even deeper Moroccogate affair. The European Parliament should take the same precautionary measures with Morocco as it did with Qatar. Every European Parliament legislative activity in recent years involving Moroccan interests should be retrospectively reviewed to ensure that it has not been influenced by foreign interference.”

Works

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References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Urban, Miguel Living people 1980 births People from Madrid Podemos (Spanish political party) MEPs MEPs for Spain 2019–2024 MEPs for Spain 2014–2019 Spanish anti-capitalists Spanish Trotskyists Complutense University of Madrid alumni