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by Our Foreign Desk
POPULAR discontent with the Tweedledee-Tweedledum nature of Spain’s two largest parties — the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the neoliberal Socialists — saw both lose heavily in local and regional polls when results were declared yesterday.
Although PP remained the largest party with 27 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s election, it lost the absolute control that it had enjoyed in eight of the 13 regions up for grabs, including in its traditional power bases of Madrid and Valencia.
The party lost 2.5 million voters since the last local elections four years ago.
The opposition Socialists, who came in second with 25 per cent of the vote, saw their total number of supporters drop half a million to 5.6 million.
This total of 52 per cent between the two biggest parties contrasted with 65 per cent in 2011.
Prime winners were the left-of-centre Podemos (We Can) coalition and the centre-right Ciudadanos (Citizens), but local coalitions saw gains for many critics of austerity orthodoxy.
In some cities, such as Madrid, socialist groups including the Izquiera Unida (United Left) collective led by the Communist Party, contested as Ganemos (Let’s Win) and succeeded in dislodging PP.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said that the result spelled the end of the two-party system that has dominated Spain for nearly 40 years, adding: “The message is that 2015 will be the year of change.”
Change came early for Barcelona, Spain’s second-biggest city where housing activist Ada Colau capitalised on local disaffection to beat the long-dominant conservative Convergence and Union party in the race for mayor.
Ms Colau, who was backed by the Barcelona Together coalition, said that the battle against evictions, poverty and corruption would be her priorities.
Formerly the head of Spain’s active anti-eviction movement, Ms Colau said that her victory demonstrated the desire for change after years of economic crisis and political corruption scandals.The eight-year economic crisis has left the country with a 24 per cent unemployment rate.
