Spain we can

SPAIN had thought that it would escape the tsunami of the anti-European Union parties at last Sunday’s election. But in the same way as the mainstream parties in Britain and France were left reeling by the United Kingdom Independence Party and the National Front, the big two parties in Spain were hit by the massive growth in support for Podemos (We Can), a left-wing party born out of the protests and evictions during the recession. Podemos came in at No. 4 after the ruling Partido, which scored 26 percent of the vote, the Socialists with 23 percent and a coalition including far-left United Left with 10 percent. Now, yesterday I scanned through the election results across the island and I was amazed to see how many votes Podemos had actually powelled. The Partido Popular and the Spanish Socialist Party are rightly concerned. Podemos is no UKIP or National Front, their fight is not with Europe but with the way Spain is governed at the moment. No-one thought that they would poll so much support and with local elections next year the mainstream parties need to watch their backs. If the European election results are replicated at next year’s local elections then the ruling Partido Popular would go into meltdown losing 15 seats in the Balearic Parliament. Podemos and the United Left would have six each and the Socialists would have 18. Podemos polled votes right across the island and the party confidently believes that they can win.