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In the past two decades West European communist parties have gone through a period of crisis and transformation. The importance of the challenges they have been facing has forced these parties to decide about matters related to the very nature of their organizations. The case of the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España, PCE) responds to this logic of party crisis and subsequent choices made with the goal of reviving the party. During the past two decades the PCE has experienced important changes in its organization and strategy, mainly a consequence of leadership decisions to pursue electoral advantage rather than ideological goals, after identifying an electoral space to the left of the Socialist Party and sponsoring the creation of Izquierda Unida (United Left, IU) to fill that space.