Podemos, which had lost steam after a highly-publicised rise on the national scene in 2014, appears to be gaining ground again and could even replace the Socialists as the country’s main left-wing party, polls suggest. Despite their vast differences in political ideology, both are promising constitutional reform, an overhaul of the electoral system and an untangling of politics from the country’s judiciary.
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Ciudadanos (“Citizens”) lies to the right of the Socialist Party (POSE) in Spain’s political spectrum.
On Friday, as the campaign came to a close, the Socialists asserted their position as the traditional rival of the conservative People’s party (PP).
Spain’s Constitutional Court has revoked that motion, but Catalonia’s leaders said they would ignore it.
“Now we have… the old versus the new”, she says.
In contrast to his rivals’ message of change, Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, has urged Spaniards to cast their vote for continuity, warning that change could risk derailing the tepid economic recovery.
Voting stations open at 9am local time (08.00 UTC) on Sunday as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his conservative People’s Party (PP) are bracing for a major fight.
How the other three parties will stack up remains to be seen.
Days or weeks of negotiations may be needed to determine the outcome – which will be unprecedented because the Socialists and the Popular Party have previously only needed support from tiny Spanish parties to get a majority in Parliament when they didn’t win one from voters.
In a campaign that has pitted emerging parties versus traditional ones, support for either side often mirrors the country’s urban and rural divide. Two new parties are ready, which could hardly be more different.
Pablo Iglesias of the upstart radical left Podemos party that hopes to shake up Spanish politics in Sunday’s vote booked his place to see “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” on its second day of showing in Spain.
Premier Rajoy could win the election on Sunday. And there will be no normal election – which shows also the aggressiveness that evening. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he would seek an alliance to prevent a leftist coalition from taking power – as one did in neighboring Portugal last month.
“I’m convinced that the Spanish will ask for change”, Ciudadanos’s 36-year-old leader Albert Rivera told supporters in Madrid’s old town at the close of his campaign, after coming onstage to rousing music and applause.
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The central government in Madrid has also had to contend with an attempt by Catalonia to break away from the rest of Spain.
