More people in Spain are spurning the two traditional political parties which have played ping pong with power since Franco’s death despite the plethora of corruption scandals hitting both.
Various opinion polls have indicated that the country is facing an unpredictable general election in early December.
Recently the ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) has taken the lead, but currently with 28% support it would not be able to govern alone. Nevertheless, the party’s share has gone up as the probable result of the country’s improving economy
The Socialists (PSOE) now have 25%. In the past, these two parties would have captured nearly 90% of the electorate, but today that is closer to 50%.
The leftist Podemos movement garnered 16% and the centrist pro-business Ciudadanos reached 11% in the most recent official poll.
Taken together with other splinter parties, that poll indicated that as many as a third of voters favoured the new groups such as Podemos over those who have held power intermittently since the 1970s.
Those who said they were as yet undecided represented some 20% of the population, enough to make a significant impact on voting day.
The economy is beginning to breeze ahead, but the unemployment rate remains dangerously high and that has fed into a sharpening of income inequality, factors which may drive voters to seek alternatives.
