Spanish local election open thread | 37 comments (37 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

OK so this is then the question that arises: How are these results contextualized given the enormous youth demos in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain. What does it say about the true extent of backing the demos have? In Madrid I see the PP, reaching 55%. That means that the demonstrators calls for boycotting the two big parties went to nothing. Only a very small fraction of the large losses of PSOE went to its left. But what was the popular attitude towards the protesters? Did opinion polls show a disapproval of their demands?

And what is the PP proposing? Is it promising a way out of austerity? Why is it that all through Europe the apostasy of the Socialists (a process with a long history though recently accelerated) means turning to the original Thatcherites? What are people voting for?

What I mean is that the pictures from Puerta del Sol and the electoral results I'm seeing seem to not add up. An interpreter is needed.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Sun May 22nd, 2011 at 07:56:07 PM EST

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

Will if you look at the results from Madrid you see that the PP held steady, PSOE collapses, IU picked up about 1-2%, and a new party called Union for Progress and Democracy picked up 5-10% of the vote as compared to none before. My suspicion is that those are the people in Sol, plus abstention and blank votes.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Sun May 22nd, 2011 at 08:06:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

UPyD is the party of former PSOE and Basque PSE politician Rosa Díez. For the first time they have managed to field local candidates after contesting the last national and european elections.

Economics is politics by other means

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 01:50:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

I'm sort of suspicious because of the involvement of one of the leaders of Basta Ya. They're as bad as Bildu honestly.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 12:04:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

I think they could be described as social-liberal Spanish anti-peripheral-nationalist.

Rosa Díez quit the PSOE in exasperation at ZP's negotiation with ETA and his support for the Catalan Socialists' project for reform of the Catalan Statute.

In a way they're similar to Ciutadans/Ciudadanos which started out from a movement seeded by Catalan-speaking, progressive, anti-nationalist intelectuals.

Rosa Díez has been more successful.

Economics is politics by other means

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 12:15:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

ElPais: UPyD gets into madrid strongly

[Rosa Díez]'s party keeps garnering citizen support since it was founded in September 2007: it got, newly born, one seat in the General election of 2008 - 3006k votes, more than [left Catalan Nationalists] ERC and nearly as many as [right Basque nationalists] PNV --, another seat in the 2009 Basque regional elections and, that same year, one MEP. In those European elections it was the only party that grew in votes since the General: no less than a 47% increase. In these elections, with more candidates on their lists than party members (some 6000), with a budget of barely €1.2M and with a campaign os street events throughout Spain, the party succeeded in establishing itself and getting into the Madrid city council and regional goverment.

Economics is politics by other means

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 04:20:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 1)

People are voting against, not for.

by cagatacos on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 01:31:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

The election was a local election, not a general election. The PSOE took a disproportionate hit that people are directly blaming ZP for. Everything else is as expected. The protests had been there for less than a week and they don't quite know what they want to achieve.

I haven't seen opinion polls about the protesters - but even people who would vote a straight PSOE ticket even in these circumstances approved of them. As an anecdote, people celebrating the PP victory by the party headquarters in Madrid were both chanting against the protesters and against Bildu. Also, the extreme right wing of the PP party, or at least Madrid regional president Esperanza Aguirre, was extremely bothered by the protests and though they were a PSOE operation against them. The more moderate wing though it was just an issue internal to the left, and they were probably right.

The PP actually lost 50k votes in the Madrid municipal elections:

(That's regional level - in the city itself it was worse - they lost 120 thousand votes, the same amount the PSOE lost, and the same amount UPyD got. IU increased their share by 30k votes)

The PP also lost votes in the regional election in Madrid:

Where are you getting the 55% figure? That's form last time around.

Economics is politics by other means

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 02:24:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

Also, the number of null and blank votes in the Madrid regional elections doubled:

Similarly in the municipal elections, region-wide:

Economics is politics by other means

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 02:28:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

No backup, old population voting for the traditional right in the country, young people trying to find something new in cities.

No future.

by Xavier in Paris on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 02:43:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spanish local election open thread (none / 0)

That was the pessimistic version.

The optimistic one is: people in Sol have not yet got an influence on the people in the country. Hopefully in the following weeks/months the link will get bound and the movement may get an influence, especially if relayed in other european countries, with always the ajor risk that it be used by the far right.

by Xavier in Paris on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 02:49:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Spanish local election open thread | 37 comments (37 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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