And Now for Something Completely Different?

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

To Hell in a Dust Cart

The financial crisis in Spain has been top of the agenda for European finance ministers for some time. But it was not EU-imposed austerity measures that provoked the recent 13 day strike by street cleaners and refuse collectors in Granada. 

The dispute, over cuts to wages and reduced terms and conditions, was not the result of spending cuts by the city authorities, but of an opportunistic attempt by private contractor Inagra to boost profits. The company is a subsidiary of Cespa, the ninth largest waste company in Europe, itself a division of Spanish construction group Ferrovial, owner of BAA (which runs Heathrow) and Amey (the main contractor building Crossrail).

The stoppage appears to be part of a wave of strikes across Spain. According to a report by the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), the big European waste disposal companies are attempting to restore falling profits by cutting costs in their contracts with municipalities, as the industrial and commercial waste markets have shrunk in the recession. 

The episode in Granada ended in defeat for the workers a few days before I arrived there last week (thus, regrettably, missing scenes apparently reminiscent of our very own Winter of Discontent). With unemployment in Andalucia the highest of any region in Spain and even, according to one report, anywhere in the EU, they were in an unenviable position. Now they are back on the streets (above) with a 2.5% pay cut, eight days less annual leave, and an increase in the working week from 35 to 37.5 hours.  As in the UK, it is a balanced economy: the poor get poorer so the rich can get richer. More pictures here.

 
"Take to the Streets Against the Cuts"