Spain's
upstart leftist party drew tens of thousands of supporters to central Madrid on
Saturday. In just one year, it has gone from nothing to a serious contender in
the upcoming vote. Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid.
Deutsche Welle, 31 Jan 2015
Angel Lopez
strode through the back streets of Madrid with a group of friends, towards
Puerta del Sol, the city's massive central square. Like tens of thousands of
others this Saturday, they took part in the "March for Change," a
demonstration organized by Podemos, the upstart political party which has taken
Spanish politics by storm over the last year.
Saturday's
event is the first time Podemos has gathered so many supporters, and Lopez
believes it could be the beginning of the end for what he calls Spain's
"pseudo-democracy."
"Podemos
is our last hope," said the 61-year-old civil servant. "People of my
age believe that the only way of ensuring that this corrupt system changes is
through a new force that has the support of the grassroots."
Minutes
later, Lopez arrived in Puerta del Sol for the culmination of the march, which
saw a total of 100,000 people filling the square and surrounding streets,
according to the police. Many demonstrators were brandishing the trademark
purple flag of Podemos, or chanting its adopted slogan: "Si se puede"
(or "Yes we can").
 |
| Iglesias: "Austerity policies have divided our country in two" |
Soaring
support
Founded by
a group of academics just a year ago, Podemos has transformed Spain's political
landscape. Last May, it scooped 1.2 million votes in the EU elections, earning
five seats in the European Parliament. Since then, support for its leftist,
anti-austerity platform has soared. It currently leads many opinion polls, thus
breaking the bi-party grip the Socialists and governing Popular Party (PP) have
had on Spanish politics for over three decades.
Much of the
party's success is attributed to its leader, Pablo Iglesias, a 36-year-old,
ponytailed political scientist with a talent for public speaking. Dressed in
jeans and a windbreaker, he addressed the crowd in Madrid to loud cheers.
"Today
we're not here to protest, we're here to say that the time has come," he
said.
"Austerity
policies have divided our country in two: those who have won and those who are
worse off than before - it's those on top and those down below."
Allied with
Syriza
The party's
fierce opposition to the austerity preached by Germany and the European
authorities has aligned it with Syriza, the new governing party in Greece.
Iglesias and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras have become close allies and
in mid-January the Spaniard visited Athens to lend his support to the Syriza
election campaign. Among the few concrete policies Podemos has announced is a
proposed audit of the national debt, similar to Syriza's own plans.
"Who
said that a government cannot change things?" Iglesias asked the Madrid
crowd. "In Greece, they have done more in six days than other governments
have done in years."
Syriza's
election victory is seen as a boost to Podemos, and on Saturday Greek flags
were visible among supporters of the Spanish party. One demonstrator bore a
placard which read: "Greece 10, Angel Merkel 0."
 |
| Tens of thousands joined the rally in central Madrid |
Spain's
economy may be over five times larger than that of Greece, but the two
countries have been suffering similar problems. The eurozone economic crisis
has been deeply damaging for both nations, reversing growth, sending public
debt soaring and leading to austerity policies which have eroded the welfare
state. In Greece's case all of those challenges have been more pronounced than
in Spain. However, the Spanish jobless rate, at just under 24 percent, is close
to that of Greece's 26 percent.
"I
don't know if Greece will get better or worse [under Syriza], but we do know
that we don't want what we have right now," said Miguel Ruiz, at the
demonstration with his family.
"We
need a change in general - a change in our society, a cultural change,"
said his wife, Gemma.
Spain has
now returned to growth after its half-decade economic slump and the
International Monetary Fund has forecast that its gross domestic product will
increase by 2 percent in 2015. But despite Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's
insistence that the country is on the road to recovery, many Spaniards are
unconvinced, especially with the jobless rate so high and austerity policies
still in place.
Battling
corruption
In
addition, the perceived mismanagement of the economic crisis and a glut of
scandals have combined to undermine the credibility of many state institutions,
from traditional political parties and the government, to banks and the royal
family.
For the
last two years, the governing PP has been plagued by allegations that it ran an
illegal cash fund financed by corporate bribes. Meanwhile, in late 2014, it
emerged that 82 board members of the lenders Caja Madrid and Bankia had been
given unregistered credit cards with which they had spent over 15 million euros
($16.9 million) on personal and luxury items. Other corruption scandals have
hurt the Socialists in Andalusia and the Catalan nationalists of the
Convergence and Union party.
"We're
fed up at the lack of trustworthiness and the level of corruption among our
politicians," said Javier Gonzalez, a 37-year-old engineer. "We're
fed up with the establishment. It would be great if this [demonstration] worked
to boost Podemos, but also as a wake-up call for the traditional parties."
With
Podemos firmly focusing public debate on corruption, the party itself has been
subjected to intense scrutiny. In recent days, critics have pointed to a
425,000-euro payment that Podemos co-founder Juan Carlos Monedero received from
the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua in 2013 for
advisory work. The tax authorities are investigating whether the payment was
made legally.
A year of
upheaval
Such
political tensions reflect the fact that Spain is going into a year of
potentially major upheaval. Municipal and regional elections are scheduled for
May, with a general election almost certain to take place by the end of the
year.
"It's
going to be an enormous year," said Josep Lobera, a sociologist at
Madrid's Autonoma University.
"At a
regional level this year is going to see an earthquake, because Podemos could
end up governing a number of regions, in coalition or on its own," he
said. In the general election, he added, the party will also be a contender.
"That
is new. It means a break with the bi-party system for the first time in nearly
40 years," Lobera added.
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