With Spanish Election Results, Anti-Austerity Fever Spreads Across Europe

Buoyed by third-place showing, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias hails the birth of ‘a new Spain’

TND Guest Contributor:  Deirdre Fulton |

In an outcome celebrated as a rejection of austerity not only in Spain but across the European continent, the Spanish general election Sunday resulted in a splintered parliament, with the conservative People’s Party losing significant ground to the anti-austerity Podemos party.

The ruling People’s Party, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, won the highest number of votes on Sunday but it only obtained 122 seats out of the 350-seat parliament, falling short of the 176 needed for a parliamentary majority—and marking its worst result ever in a general election.

This means Rajoy will have to form a coalition or minority government with the Socialist party, which won 91 seats, or newcomers Podemos and Ciudadanos, which secured 69 and 40 seats respectively. Any of these results could see progressive policies breaking austerity’s stranglehold on the country, where the Popular Party government has been pursuing harsh budget cuts and tax increases.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias—who formed the party in January 2014 with a group of fellow leftist university lecturers, inspired by the grassroots protest movement Los Indignados—hailed the birth of “a new Spain.”

Addressing supporters in Madrid late Sunday night, Iglesias added: “Spain is not going to be the same again, and we’re happy. Our fight against corruption goes ahead.”

Meanwhile, Socialist party leader Pedro Sánchez said the results prove voters want a change in political direction, telling a crowd early Monday that “Spain wants a move to the left.”

And Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, whose Syriza party is allied with Podemos, went further than that, heralding the election results on social media as evidence of growing opposition to austerity policies that have swept the European continent.

As Reuters pointed out on Monday, the “outcome was reminiscent of a similar situation in neighboring Portugal, where the incumbent conservatives won an October election but a socialist government backed by far left parties was ultimately sworn in.”

Austerity has now been politically defeated in #Spain, as well. Parties seeking to serve society made a strong showing #20D

— Alexis Tsipras (@tsipras_eu) December 21, 2015

Bravo Podemos! A small step that may turn into a large faultline shattering the Eurozone’s crisis-denial & austerian contempt for democracy.

— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) December 21, 2015