“We are not the solution; we are a tool in order to create a new situation.” – Pablo Iglesias, political spokesperson for Podemos
The traditional bipartisan state of Spanish politics is now under threat. A party and a political movement originating from the 15-M indignant protests of 2011 is gaining ground on the political battlefield to a point where Podemos has found itself at the top of the polls according to a survey recently conducted by El Pais newspaper.
Nearly 28.2 percent of people asked said they would be voting for the new party, five percentage points ahead of the two main parties, the left-wing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the right-wing party People’s Party (PP).
Since the death of the prolific Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, these two main parties have interchanged on a consistent basis.
But the parties have recently found themselves losing votes in droves and their image being eroded away by the current climate of economic austerity, with increasing cuts and high employment on one hand and political corruption of an unmeasurable scale on the other.
The people of Spain are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the traditional two-party system, and Podemos has come along at just the right time (“Podemos” being the Spanish for, “We can,” a tag-line lifted from US President Barack Obama´s campaign).
The party is headed up by political science professor Pablo Iglesias, who has links to Cuban and Equatorial political parties with which he shares some common ground. Iglesias has been clever not to position himself in either the right or left of the political spectrum, allowing the party to gain votes from disenchanted supporters from all sides.
Podemos´s rise to popularity over the years has been due to corruption scandals that have damaged the main bipartisan parties, along with the fact that neither party has been able to control spiraling employment figures or aggressive banks that are becoming increasingly heavy-handed with mortgage defaulters.
Podemos seeks to manage the austerity by renegotiating Spain´s debt-paying commitments and stopping evictions on mortgage defaulters, as well as reducing retirement age to 60.
Along with successful online media campaigns, Podemos have used anti-elitism rhetoric to their advantage, repeatedly enforcing the idea of the self-interests of the two main parties and the “ caste” idealism that has led to the current state of affairs.
Podemos has decided to use a transparency system regarding its finances, publishing its expenses and salaries on a webpage.
Podemos´s rise to political power is being fuelled by younger voters, aged 25-34, who feel disenfranchised by the political system and the current unmitigated corruption scandals and mismanagement which is coming out in the press on a daily basis. Even once revered and stable political figures such as the Catalan politian Jordi Pujol have been exposed for siphoning off public funds to offshore fiscal paradises.
Podemos released an anti-corruption propaganda video using the words of JordiPuyol against him: “It isn´t just the apples, it is the entire tree that is rotten, they all will fall.”
Analysis by Anthony Bain