WHAT'S THE STORY?

A BACKLASH against austerity and corruption scandals has brought a radical change to Spanish politics in this week’s regional elections, with the country’s “indignados” ending the dominance of the two main parties.

A grassroots movement of leftist parties gave the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) a drubbing in a vote that is widely seen as a barometer of the General Election later this year.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s assertions that economic recovery has begun may have helped a little in stemming the tide against him but both the PP and the Socialists saw their share of the vote fall significantly from 65 per cent four years ago to 52 per cent on Sunday.

It was not as bad a disaster as the mainstream parties initially feared but still means that Spain now enters a new political era with coalition on the cards across the country.

The two new parties – Podemos “We Can” and the business friendly Citizens – came third and fourth in most regions, meaning they will hold the balance of power in the local governments.

“We would have liked the decline of the old parties to have been quicker,” said Podemos’ Pablo Iglesias. “But circumstances compel us to keep working on it.”

DAVID AND GOLIATH

NOWHERE was the result more dramatic than in Barcelona where 41-year-old housing campaigner Ada Colau was elected mayor.

“It’s a victory for David over Goliath,” she said.

The leader of Barcelona En Comú, Colau is also the founder of the Mortgage Victims’ Platform which campaigns on behalf of the many Spaniards in danger of losing their homes because they can no longer pay their mortgages. With unemployment at 23 per cent and youth unemployment more than double that figure, the crisis has been severe but Colau has been at the forefront of the battle against evictions and inequality.

Her party, which translates as Barcelona in Common is crowdfunded and operates under a code of ethics drawn up by its members.

Election promises include fighting growing inequality in the city, job creation and the transformation of the government by bringing in transparency and anti-corruption policies.

“We want to show we can do politics another way – it’s a historic opportunity,” says Colau.

Her “commonsense measures” also include axing expenses and official limousines for councillors attending meetings, as well as drawing no more than £1600 per month for her own salary. Meetings with officials would be made more accessible and accountable by posting details online.

As part of their reforms, Colau and her colleagues want to target tourism which they claim is “out of control” with the centre becoming dominated by tourist accommodation like hotels and self-catering apartments.

As a result small businesses and local people are being driven out because of rocketing rents.

“Everyone wants to see the real city, but if the centre fills up with multinationals and big stores that you can find in any other city, it doesn’t work,” she said.

The prospect of being able to improve conditions for city dwellers is one she relishes.

“What most excites us is the idea that Barcelona could become a world reference as a democratic and socially just city. Barcelona has the resources, the money and the skills. The only thing that has been missing to date has been the political will,” she said.

Colau’s party now holds 11 of the 41 seats on the city council but will still need to make alliances in order to rule.

ANGER

A COALITION of some sort is also likely to be formed in Madrid where the People’s Party only just managed to retain their mayor, a 63-year-old countess.

Esperanza Aguirre squeezed through against indignada Manuela Carmena, a communist former judge. The 71-year-old was persuaded to come out of retirement to run for election and her party, the Podemos backed Ahora Madrid, came second and could still hold power if they link up with the Socialists.

“The vote for change has won a majority,” said Carmena.

The PP’s share of the vote in both cities has dropped from half of the votes cast to around a third since 2011 and with their overall vote plummeting to just 27 per cent across Spain it means that it now faces being the opposition in many of its former bastions like Valencia and Madrid.

It is the first time that Spanish voters have so overwhelmingly rejected the two main parties which have held sway ever since the Franco dictatorship ended in 1975 and shows the strength of anger against the austerity policies in Spain, with voters plumping for untested new parties rather than back the old hegemony.

It’s even more remarkable considering that Podemos was only formed little over a year ago, winning five seats in the EU elections just a few months later.

The centre-right Ciudadanos have been around a little longer, since 2006. First founded to oppose Catalan nationalism their support has grown to around 15 per cent of voters since deciding to contest these elections nationwide.

This election was not so good for the independence parties, however, with voters plumping for Colau’s party rather than Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Convergencia i Unio (CiU).

Sunday’s elections were for seats in 13 out of 17 regional governments and over 8,000 town halls. Last time the PP secured convincing majorities in eight of the 13 regions but lost control of all of them this week as voters in Spain followed the example of those in Greece and Italy who have rejected the mainstream parties and plumped instead for new, radical parties.

However, the Spaniards are not used to coalitions and whether agreement will be reached is debatable with Socialist leader Susana Diaz still fighting to install a working coalition in Andalusia after the PP lost 17 of its 50 seats in March while Podemos won 15 seats and Ciudadanos took nine.