International
Jon Nazca / Reuters
SEVILLE — As evening fell, hundreds gathered along the banks of the canal Alfonso XIII Canal in early March wearing purple, the color of the anti-austerity party Podemos. They chanted “Yes we can! Yes we can!” when Teresa Rodríguez, the Podemos candidate for the presidency of Andalusia’s regional government, took the stage.
The party was kicking off the campaign for elections in Andalusia, the most populous (8.4 million people) autonomous region of Spain, to be held March 22. Podemos rallies are becoming more frequent in Andalusia because, for the first time, real election gains can be had.
Podemos (We Can) is leading the polls for the Spanish general elections to be held at the end of the year. But first the party, led by the charismatic ponytailed academic Pablo Iglesias, has to prove itself in Andalusia, which has the country’s highest unemployment rate — 34.2 percent, compared with 23.7 percent nationally. The first regional elections of this year are seen as an important test case for electoral support for Podemos at the polls, since the party was founded only a year ago. And maybe even more important, it could show how the far-left party holds ideologically if it is granted political power in Spain.
Andalusia may not be the best region to start for Podemos, as it has been a stronghold of the social-democratic Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE) for decades. And although the PSOE is ahead in the polls, it is less convincing than before, and winning a majority in parliament appears more difficult for than ever before.
Antonio Rangel, a freelance Web designer from the port city of Cadiz, gazed at the spectacle of the rally from under some palm trees. He said he used to vote for the social democrats but is undecided. The high taxes he pays as a freelancer in tight economic times are getting the better of him.
“If I would end up with a fair pay, I would be motivated to work,” he said. “But what is worse is that our politicians are filling their pockets shamelessly. This has to stop”.
Although his friends have tried to convince him that politics in Andalusia will never change, Rangel said people are debating public issues more and more since Podemos entered the arena. That gives him hope. But whether Podemos earns his vote depends on its economic program.
“Although I sympathize for a great deal with Podemos’ ideals, its plans are not concrete enough for me yet,” he said.
Fernando Álvarez-Ossorio
law professor, University of Seville
Al Jazeera met with Teresa Rodríguez, the Podemos candidate for Andalusia’s president, a few days earlier while she ate lunch outside her campaign headquarters in Seville.
“I really don’t believe that people will vote Podemos because they think we can fix unemployment at a glance,” said Rodríguez, 33, a Marxist and feminist activist from the Andalusian city of Rota. “When election time comes in Andalusia, all of a sudden temporal jobs and subsidies appear. That’s why people vote for the ruling party. Instead we want to stimulate cooperatives, self-sufficiency and social jobs.”
Rodríguez started her political life by protesting the presence of a U.S. military base near her hometown. Last year she joined Podemos and was elected a member of the European Parliament, along with Pablo Iglesias, when the party surprisingly won five seats.
A March 15 poll by Metroscopia predicts that the PSOE will be the biggest party in the Andalusian Parliament, capturing 45 of the 109 seats, with the conservative Partido Popular second with 29 seats, followed by Podemos with 15. Disappointed leftist voters who voted for the social democrats in the past and now support Podemos could prevent PSOE from getting an absolute majority.
Despite this, University of Seville law professor and political expert Fernando Álvarez-Ossorio sees trouble ahead for Podemos. Either the party has to form a coalition with the social democrats, the party it most fiercely campaigned against, or block the formation of a government.
“This is not good for Podemos at all. Voters will be disillusioned because [Podemos will] compromise on its strong ideals, or it will be seen as a party that is unable to govern,” he said.
He is stunned by the region’s loyalty to the social democrats despite its high unemployment rate. “Because the PSOE has been in power for such a long time, perhaps it is in the psyche of the Andalusians that no one else can ever win here,” he said.
José Manuel García, 48, will vote for Podemos, though. He was laid off from his florist job in 2008 when the economic crisis took a grim hold on Spain. For a couple of years, he got by on his small pension, but his unemployment caused tensions in his marriage.
“We split up about three years ago. After that, I lived five months in my car till I ended up in a homeless shelter” in Seville run by the Catholic relief organization Cáritas, he said. Now he is learning to solder and fix pipes so he has a better chance to find work. “We live in third world conditions. This is shameful for Spain and Europe.”
A campaign poster with a photo of Rodríguez with a big smile reads, “The change begins in Andalusia.”
She gave up her seat at the European Parliament on March 5 to dedicate her time to the Andalusia campaign.
“What happens here is important to see if the polls tell us anything,” she said. “We are not a party that wants to operate in the margin. We aspire to govern.”
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