World

Governing party holds narrow lead in Spanish election

World View: Podemos ‘reconnects’ with voters who had drifted away in recent months

A waiter and a patron chat as they look at a television debate between Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy and opposition leader Pedro Sanchez during at a restaurant in Madrid on Monday. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

Tue Dec 15 2015 - 17:10

Voters in Spain will decide in a general election on Sunday whether to hand another term to the centre-right Popular Party and its leader Mariano Rajoy, who holds a narrow lead in a four-way race for power.

As well as the centre-left Socialists, still associated in many voters’ minds with the economic collapse, there are two upstart parties – leftist Podemos and centre-right Ciudandanos – in contention for second place.

On this week's World View podcast, Irish Times Madrid correspondent Guy Hedgecoe reports on the splintering of the traditional two-party political landscape in Spain, the origins and changing fortunes of the new political forces and what kind of coalition may emerge from Sunday's vote.

Podemos has lost support since it and its charismatic leader Pablo Iglesias peaked at the top of the polls in early 2015, but has rebounded in the polls in recent weeks. "They seem to have reconnected with voters who drifted away from the in recent months, perhaps worried about the possibility that Podemos would be leading Spain into a Greece style situation" says Hedgecoe.

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Also on the podcast, Washington Correspondent Simon Carswell profiles Texas senator Ted Cruz. Unlike Ben Carson, whose earlier surge in the polls has abated, Cruz is seen as strong on the issues of national security and immigration. "Cruz and Donald Trump have capitalised on the fear of terrorism in the aftermath of the Paris attacks," says Carswell. "Fear is a big issue amongst voters in the US".

Well funded, shrewd and a strong debater, Cruz can become a considerable force in the race if he adds the support of Trump’s “angry white men” to his base of Evangelicals and fiscal conservatives, Carswell adds.

“[Republicans] love the fact that he has been a thorn in the side of congressional leaders and in the business of Washington. He certainly is very strongly to the right on many issues. In response to the Syrian refugees, he suggested a religious test: those fleeing persecution should be settled mainly in majority Muslim countries and Christians targeted for persecution should be given safe haven in the US”.

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