That's because the complete dominance of modern Spanish politics, by the country's two main parties - the ruling conservative Popular Party and opposition Socialists - has been broken. jidieji

In the 2009 elections, between them, those two parties took more than 80% of the vote. Last night their joint share of the vote dropped below 50% for the first time in a national election in modern Spain.じいえｌぺ

So who benefited? The answer is smaller parties, particularly anti-austerity movements on the left.yuanymang

The United Left coalition, linked to Spain's former Communist party, came third, with 10% of the vote.
Not a 'German colony'

But the new-kid-on-the-block here in Spain is a party called "Podemos" ("we can"). The party was only set up three months ago, but they came fourth, taking 8% of the vote.lomeng

They say they are not anti-Europe, but they are against the way the European Union has been run in recent years.

Their leader, university professor Pablo Iglesias, told me that he would fight to stop Spain being, in his words, a "German colony... and a country controlled by the Troika" - referring to the EU-IMF bailout officials.

He believes Spain needs to recapture some of its sovereignty, and that austerity has not helped reduce the record 26% rate of unemployment. jaiqrqer‘blog

"I want to stop young Spaniards serving tapas and beers to the rich in northern Europe," he said.

Posted by: woerma at 02:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 237 words, total size 2 kb.