Podemos and the PSOE have formed a coalition against a marked swing to the right

Spain heads to the polls on 28th April in a snap election which has exposed the political bankruptcy of all five main parties and threatens to propel the far right to power.

By Dave Stockton PEDRO SANCHEZ, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), is now in the Moncloa Palace as prime minister of Spain. Every progressive person in the Spanish state will be glad to see the back of the Popular Party’s autocratic leader Mariano Rajoy. The critical moment came when the Basque Nationalist Party […]

The Spanish Prime Minister has been punished for his handling of the Catalan separatist crisis. Now is the moment for a united movement to kick out his austerity government

The struggle between Catalan separatists and the Madrid government has poisoned relations in the province, with neither side able to offer a satisfactory way forward

After the nationalist debacle, it's time for working class unity to fight for a socialist and democratic alternative

ON OCTOBER 27, the Catalan Parliament declared independence by 70 to 10, with 55 abstentions. The Spanish state responded by removing the Catalan First Minister and his government from office, dissolving the Parliament, and assuming control of the region’s government, police and media. New elections have been called for December 21. Until then, Soraya Sáenz […]

IN CATALONIA, the Madrid government’s refusal to grant bail to the “two Jordis”, Jordi Sánchez chairman of the ANC and Jordi Cuixart, chairman of Òmnium Cultural, and the threats to dissolve Catalonia’s Parliament and arrest its President, have been met with the largest demonstrations yet. Half a million marched in Barcelona, with tens of thousands […]

ISLAMIC STATE has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, which killed 13 people and wounded more than 100. The whole working class movement should stand united in condemning these indiscriminate acts of terror and extend our sympathy and solidarity to the families, friends and bystanders traumatised by these horrific events. The […]

AFTER TEN months of political wrangling and two inconclusive elections, Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) has secured the support of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) to form a minority government. In a warning to PSOE MPs whose abstentions broke the deadlock, Rajoy said his government would be one “that can govern, not a government that […]

When Spain adopted its post-Franco constitution there was a fierce battle over the character of the state. The Right insisted on its unitary character with all its inhabitants simply “Spaniards”. The Left wanted a “plurinational state” with a federal character. The Right basically won and the 1978 constitution referred to “the common and indivisible homeland […]

With new elections likely, workers’ mobilisations could shift the balance of forces THE Spanish general election of December 20 created a political impasse. Although the Partido Popular, PP, the governing party under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, won the most seats, this was a hollow victory indeed. With just 28 percent of the vote and 123 […]

In the aftermath of Labour’s defeat, speakers from the Brick Lane Debates group at the 14 May Radical Left Assembly referred to the Spanish Indignados and Podemos as models to imitate. There was even an attempt to brand the  1,000 people in the hall as the “14M Movement”. Similarly, in Left Unity, we find a […]

By KD Tait Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos (We Can) won 14.8 per cent and took 15 seats in elections to Andalusia’s regional parliament, doubling last year’s vote in the European elections. The meteoric rise of the fledgling party which is leading opinion polls ahead of general elections this Autumn has provoked intense debate across the […]

By Christian Gebhardt 4 April 2015 This is super election-year in Spain. In May, there are local elections across the country and in the coming months there are elections for several regional governments. Andalusia, whose regional parliament was elected on 22 March, stands at the beginning of this long series of elections and political battles […]

By Christian Gebhardt Podemos, the expression of what has been called “the new politics” in Spain, has just held its first Citizens’ Assembly; the opening of a month long process of deciding on the party’s policies, constitution and candidates for next year’s general and municipal elections. Addressing over 8,000 people in the Palacio de Vistalegre, […]

By Markus Lehner Spain bucked the rightward trend in May’s European Parliament elections by electing five MEPs from the new “Podemos” (We Can) formation. With 8 per cent or 1.25 million votes, in addition to the 11 per cent won by the United Left (IU) bloc, Podemos’s surprise success opens up the possibility of creating […]

The continent is still deep in recession. Coordinated by Germany, France and the European Commission and Central Bank, savage austerity is being imposed on its weaker economies. KD Tait looks at resistance in Portugal and Greece and opposition in France to the new Fiscal Treaty. The southern states of the European Union – Portugal, Italy and […]

By K Tait Hundreds of masked, black-clad police advancing, firing rubber bullets into the backs of fleeing protesters. In a side street, young people confronting vans of riot police behind a blazing barricade. These were the streets of Madrid as Spain’s government announced a further £8billion of cuts to education, health and welfare spending in […]

Tens of thousands of students and young people in Spain marked the European TUC Day of Action against austerity measures by taking to the street to demand an end to education cuts and mass unemployment, by Jeremy Dewar

The occupation of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square, the Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona, and those of other cities across Spain marks an important new development in the fight against the cuts across Europe, writes Dave Stockton