Newcomers win big in Spain election, ruling conservatives sink to historic lows
Spaniards wanted change, and at Sunday’s elections they got it. The two discredited parties that have run the country for three decades sank to historic lows while bright newcomers stormed their way into parliament. The upturned two-party system was tired and prone to cronyism, but it had one major advantage: much like Britain, it almost always produced stable governments. Sunday’s vote created an unprecedented mess, with the next government needing the support of up to five different parties.
The now acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy began to discover on Monday that, despite his conservative People’s Party gaining most votes, it will be almost impossible for him to form a government and Spaniards were left wondering whether they will have to vote again by May.
Spain has been divided not just along left and right lines, but also over visions of how centralist or federalist it should be and, more recently, whether it needs old parties mired in corruption allegations or new squeaky-clean ones. In these conditions it is hard to find common ground between two parties, let alone five. That said, an era of cross-party consensus is what Spain needs as it seeks new models of all kinds, for its political system, its economy and the balance between its regions.
The most dramatic change is the appearance of anti-austerity Podemos, a party that only 19 months ago placed the pony-tailed profile of its leader, Pablo Iglesias, as its symbol on ballot papers for the European elections because, without it, many voters would not have known who they were. Meanwhile, Albert Rivera’s centre-right Ciudadanos has proved that the high-handedness and blatant cronyism of Mariano Rajoy’s People’s party (PP) was increasingly unbearable to rightwingers and liberals who want a system where power does not bring the right to bend, manipulate or ignore the rules. The breath of fresh air blows in both directions and Podemos should recognise that the desire for regeneration is not a narrow ideological one.
Amid all the hype about insurgents and with the PP ahead in the polls, it was easy to ignore the clean-cut but unexciting Socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez. He was clearly leading his party to it worst drubbing in recent history and it duly sank to just 22% of the vote.
