Unidos Podemos (United We Can) and other leftists argue that the PP, under acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, has been discredited because of austerity and the chronic unemployment that has plagued Spain since the 2008 financial crisis.
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“In addition, the parties” programs focus on external issues, such as the situations in Venezuela, and ignore the social grievances at a time when 29 percent of the Spaniards are on the verge of poverty and marginalization.
Years of domination by the Popular Party (PP), now led by acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and the Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Pedro Sanchez, were disrupted in the December elections by upstart left-wing party Podemos (We can), headed by former politics lecturer, Pablo Iglesias, and the business-friendly Ciudadanos (Citizens’ Party), led by Albert Rivera.
An election in December 2015 failed to consolidate a national government, leaving none of Spain’s parties with an outright majority, and precipitating months of political gridlock.
It is as yet unclear how Brexit will influence Sunday’s polls.
The conservative PP is forecast to win these polls, meaning that it must either form an uneasy alliance with the Socialists or resign itself to the impossibility of forming a majority in parliament. But at 21 percent the jobless rate remains the second-highest in the European Union after Greece and little different from what it was when the PP came to power in 2011.
But with Socialist leaders describing in private a potential deal with Podemos as a kiss of death and the threat of a third election deepening fears for Spain’s economic recovery, that may be the only way forward for the center-left party. Pablo Iglesias of the anti-establishment party Podemos told Spaniards they have an historic chance to replace the old, failed politics of the past.
Key numbers of the election: Four – the main candidates standing in the election. Long-time party treasurer Luis Bárcenas – now in jail- confessed there had always been a scheme of illegal contributions and donations to the party and that top officials have always been aware of it.
The prime minister set out his commitment to reviving the economy, keeping the Catalan independence movement in check, promoting European Union integration and defeating terrorism.
The Socialists (PSOE) are defending themselves in two scandals that are now smaller in scale than those engulfing the PP.
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The Socialists are fighting smaller scandals of their own, involving allegations that former party members ran a fraud scheme by syphoning off public funds. Separately, they allegedly paid subsidies for professional training courses that never took place. “Spain needs a leader who knows his job”. The socialists and Unidos Podemos could potentially create a broad left-of-centre coalition. The referendum idea is backed by Podemos but rejected outright by other national-level parties, who support negotiations to devolve more power to Catalonia. “Those men are perfectly able to travel to Spain, as they have done many times, and they can lodge a complaint here… and the Supreme Court can give them their answer”, said Iglesias.
