Teresa Rodriguez, Podemos candidate for Andalucian President
Voters go to the polls in Andalucia, southern Spain, on Sunday to elect a new regional Parliament and President, following the collapse of a coalition of the centre-left PSOE and Izquierda Unida (United Left). Podemos, the radical grassroots organisation that grew out of the Indignados movement, is gathering widespread support, and the result will be seen as a significant indicator of what might happen in the countrywide round of regional and municipal elections in May, and the general election that follows.
Pablo Iglesias, Teresa Rodriguez and local Podemos candidate Felix Gill
At a boisterous
election rally in Malaga's market square on Saturday (pictures above and below), speeches
from Podemos Secretary General Pablo Iglesias and
the party's Presidential candidate Teresa Rodriguez, attacking austerity, corruption, incompetence and 'La Casta' (the
entrenched governing elite), clearly struck a
chord. Both were mobbed on leaving the stage. 'Populist' is
often used as a term of condemnation, but this was something
completely different. Both would get my vote, if I had one. The contrast with the lacklustre crew
preparing for our own May elections could not be more striking. Or
depressing.
Last May Podemos won 5
seats in the European Parliament, only three months after formally
constituting itself as a sort-of political party*. Anything could happen. More pictures here.
* for more detail see
Tim Baster and Isabelle Merminod's excellent piece here
