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A woman casts her vote for the national elections in Barcelona, Spain. Emilio Morenatti/AP/PA

Spanish voters go back to the polls for second election in six months

The last general elections in December resulted in a hung parliament and parties failed to agree on a coalition.

JUST DAYS AFTER a shock Brexit, Spaniards started voting in repeat elections today to decide if they too want a radical change as promised by a far-left coalition led by Podemos.

The polls, which opened at 7am under a generally blue sky nationwide, are pitting voters hungry for change in a country with sky-high unemployment against those who fear this change would worsen the situation for Spain, which was on the brink of collapse just a few years ago.

Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union has further exacerbated this cleavage, with the outgoing conservative Popular Party (PP) insisting on the need for “stability” in the face of “radicalism” and “populism”, in a thinly-veiled dig at the Unidos Podemos coalition.

“If you want a united country and not a radical Spain, think about it, go for what is safe… vote for the Popular Party,” acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy said in one of his last tweets before the obligatory day of campaign silence.

Two-party dominance

Voters have the choice between four major political groupings after the emergence of Podemos and centre-right upstart Ciudadanos last year uprooted the country’s two-party dominance.

This upheaval meant that the last general elections in December resulted in a hung parliament, after which parties failed to agree on a coalition, prompting today’s repeat vote.

Associated Press Associated Press

Opinion polls suggest the results today will also be fractured, with the PP coming first without a majority, tailed by Unidos Podemos, which could replace the 137-year-old Socialist party as Spain’s main left-wing force.

Political leaders will have to go back to the negotiating table, under more pressure this time to form a coalition.

Stability or shake-up 

Throughout the latest campaign — and again on Friday after Brexit — the PP has hammered away at the need for stability in reference to the rise of Unidos Podemos, which like Greece’s ruling Syriza party rejects EU-backed austerity and pledges to fight for the least well-off.

The coalition, led by charismatic, pony-tailed Pablo Iglesias, has responded with a message of calm aimed at defusing this criticism.

Unidos Podemos — the “o” of Unidos shaped as a heart — has made “smile of a country” its slogan for an emotional campaign.

Spain Election Spanish socialist leader Pedro Sanchez casts his vote for the national elections in Madrid. Paul White / PA Paul White / PA / PA

Rajoy argues that since the PP came to power in 2011, it has brought Spain back to growth and overseen a drop in unemployment — though at 21 percent it is still the second highest rate in the European Union after Greece.

But his rivals retort that inequalities have risen, the jobs created are mainly unstable, and they point to the repeated corruption scandals to have hit the PP.

Change

Ileana Vellon Garcia, a 51-year-old cleaner in Madrid, will vote for Unidos Podemos.

“They represent change. I was for the Socialists for a long time, but they have really disappointed me,” she says.

Emilio Morenatti / PA Emilio Morenatti / PA / PA

Whether Brexit will have any influence on Spain’s election is as yet uncertain.

But for Vicente Serrano, a 74-year-old retiree in the southeastern port city of Alicante, uncertainty is not a good thing.

“At a time of such sudden changes in the world — look at the United Kingdom — I’m opting for the right because it tends to be less fickle,” he says.

- © AFP 2016.

Read: Brexit fallout – now Spain says it’s close to taking back Gibraltar>

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    Mute Adam Smythe
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    Jun 26th 2016, 10:59 AM

    The cat’s out of the bag now…and it ain’t going back in.
    Amazing how rattled the neo liberal establishment across Europe are right now.
    For far too long they have been robbing the coffers of struggling countries to the point that it’s become normalized economic behaviour.
    They’ve really had to crank up the rhetoric in a doomed attempt to lie and spin their way out of the impending crisis.
    The reason we’re living in dangerous times?
    The failed neo liberal capitalist project.

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    Mute James Darcy
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    Jun 26th 2016, 11:06 AM

    Adam that’s just incorrect. The EU have raised the social floor more than any single government would have ever done. It’s been well documented that people voting for right wing parties and anti EU parties from low socioeconomic areas is like turkeys voting for Christmas. They will be the first people negatively effected by this. Why do you think rich right wingers want out of Europe? Because they are forced to funnel money to social services on dictation of the EU.

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    Mute Danny McLaughlin
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    Jun 26th 2016, 11:18 AM

    Adam, I don’t see many left wing parties in the UK that are happy with the Ref result.

    Take a look at the parties that supported it.
    UKIP
    Britain first
    The right wing of the Tories.

    Yes indeed, these look like parties that want to fight against Neo Liberalist capitalism.

    Take a look at the anti-EU groups all over Europe.
    All right wing parties.

    Once again, the Irish left wing are completely out of step with their own supposed philosophies.
    They’d rather try to jump on a populist bandwagon rather than actually represent their own philosophy which should be totally at odds with the Right wind parties of Europe.

    Align yourselves with Britain first, Golden Dawn and all the rest.
    The Irish people are not idiots.

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    Mute Adam Smythe
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    Jun 26th 2016, 11:36 AM

    Before 2008 Spain’s government was one of the least spendthrift in the eurozone – unlike Greece. Or Germany.
    Spanish debts were 33% of GDP – Germany’s 65%.
    Madrid was taking in more in tax revenue than it was spending and was in the process of paying off its debts.
    Berlin regularly broke the maximum annual borrowing level laid down in the Maastricht Treaty of 3% of GDP.
    The charge of recklessness could not be levelled at the Spanish government.
    Similar tragedy to what happened here. The country was flooded with cheap cash which resulted in a property boom and a tripling of property prices.
    Then the crash.

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    Mute Adam Smythe
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    Jun 26th 2016, 11:37 AM

    An orchestrated economic coup.

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    Mute Critical_Thinker
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    Jun 26th 2016, 11:53 AM

    Adam Smyth, Spain’s socialist government led the country to the brink of meltdown in those years. They inherited an economy that had grown by 3.1% with 11% unemployment in 2004 but by 2011 20% were unemployed, 40% of young people, and a deficit of 10% of their GDP. They were socialists and instead of trying to solve the problems in the economy they tried to ignore them or wish them away. Didn’t work.

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Jun 26th 2016, 12:29 PM

    It’s impossible to say how much the EU have raised the social floor and whether they should take credit for all and every improvements. To suggest they have, is to suggest that all countries would have remained static with no improvements for their peoples…..I do not believe there would have been no improvement without the EU.

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    Mute Nucky
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    Jun 26th 2016, 11:29 AM

    The Brussels end is nigh

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    Mute Joey Gee
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    Jun 26th 2016, 3:53 PM

    Do the ‘UK’ citizens living in Espana have the right to vote, still?
    Obviously they shall ’til britain does leave but, their citizens aren’t coming home but shall continue paying taxes in Spain so, how shall these taxpayers be represented politically now?

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