Politics, archive

Spain's traditional parties lose out in local elections

Alternative parties take votes from Popular Party and Socialists

25.05.2015 - Update : 25.05.2015
Spain's traditional parties lose out in local elections

ANKARA

Spain's traditional political parties lost ground to emerging movements in local election results announced on Monday, local media reported.

The governing Popular Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy saw its share of the vote drop from the 37 percent it garnered in 2011 to 27 percent in what El Pais newspaper called a "political upheaval".

The party lost absolute control in eight of the 13 regions that held elections on Sunday, including in its traditional power centers Madrid and Valencia, while the main opposition Socialists took 25 percent. Their combined vote share was down from 65 percent four years ago.

The new center-right, pro-business Ciudadanos party and leftist anti-austerity party Podemos took nearly half of the vote, with the Podemos mayoral candidate winning in Barcelona. The party could win power in Madrid - previously a conservative stronghold.

"Those who have applied austerity policies will have to turn 180 degrees," Podemos leader Pablo Manuel Iglesias Turrion said in an interview with the broadcaster SER on Sunday.

Podemos campaigned on a platform opposing the spending cuts imposed to reduce debt and restore public finances.

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