Madrid: For some he is a dangerous populist. To others he is a passionate and sincere campaigner.

Whatever they think of him, Spaniards agree that the pony-tailed former university lecturer Pablo Iglesias has shaken up politics in Spain since becoming the head of the far-left anti-austerity Podemos party two years ago.

Since then he has risen to nationwide prominence and could be on the cusp of overtaking the 137-year-old Socialist party in Sunday’s election as the country’s main left-wing force.

Opinion polls suggest the outgoing conservative Popular Party will come first — albeit without a majority — followed by a far-left coalition led by Podemos.

“History is ours and is made by people,” the 37-year-old shouted Friday in Madrid in front of thousands of exhilarated supporters as campaigning ended, citing the words of Chile’s former Marxist president Salvador Allende.

Bearded and with a solemn gaze regularly broken by a winning smile, Iglesias vows to defend the poor in a country stricken by sky-high unemployment, rising inequalities and corruption scandals.

A brilliant orator and strategist, Iglesias has managed to harness the anger of Spain’s Indignants anti-austerity movement into an influential political force.

He created Podemos in January 2014 along with colleagues from Madrid’s Complutense University where he taught.

Four months later, it won 1.2 million votes and five seats in elections for the European parliament — with young candidates mostly new to politics and a campaign budget of just 150,000 euros (Dh623,900).

Then in December last year, Podemos came third in general elections that uprooted the traditional dominance of the People’s Party (PP) and the Socialists and resulted in a hung parliament.

Iglesias subsequently refused to support a coalition formed by the Socialists and centre-right upstart party Ciudadanos, setting the stage for its collapse that forced Sunday’s fresh elections.

Raised in the Madrid working class neighbourhood of Vallecas where he still lives in a modest flat, his parents gave him the name of Socialist party (PSOE) founder Pablo Iglesias Posse — in front of whose grave they met.

But in contrast with the PSOE founder who was a humble typographer, the Podemos leader has a raft of diplomas in politics, law and communication.

Immersed in politics from an early age — his father was jailed under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco — Iglesias was active in the communist youth and anti-globalisation movements before the Indignants protest wave erupted in Spain in 2011.

Now on the forefront of politics, he leaves no one indifferent.

In private, Socialist party members describe him a “populist Leninist” who wants to “eliminate” them.

He is close to Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party, and on Saturday the Greek prime minister said he had called him to wish him well.

“I told him, ‘Pablo, we held on, we are standing, now it’s your turn, we are waiting to unite our forces so that we can change Europe’.”

Iglesias can be cutting one moment, and gentle the next, prompting former Socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez to describe him as having a “double personality”.

So it was that he once publicly admonished a journalist for wearing a fur coat.

And in the short parliamentary term after December elections, his vehement speeches divided opinion.

But he can also come across as funny and accessible, playing his guitar live on television, giving a ride to a presenter on his red scooter or quoting from TV series such as ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘The Simpsons’.

He has won over many ordinary Spaniards hit hard by drastic spending cuts and 21 per cent unemployment, denouncing austerity policies as well as corruption scandals that have dogged both the PP and Socialists.

One of his teachers, Ramon Cotarelo, remembers him as a “considerate” person and “brilliant” student.

But former colleague Antonio Elorza was not so flattering in his assessment. “You couldn’t trust him. He would do whatever he pleased, didn’t defend any just cause so as not to lose an ounce of power,” he said.

Before he was chosen to head up Podemos, the party had been shaken by arguments abut his fitness for the job, with some arguing there was no need for “an alpha-male in the herd”.

And Podemos has a lot of sceptics, not least in the business world. It has also been criticised for its supposed links with far left regimes in Latin America including Venezuela.