Reuters/Reuters - A man holds a a book written by Pablo Iglesias, Secretary General of Podemos, during a local assembly of Podemos at Madrid's Salamanca district December 18, 2014. REUTERS/Susana Vera
[From article]
The sudden rise of a new anti-establishment party has transformed Spanish politics a year before a general election, forcing the center-right government to veer away from austerity and the left-leaning opposition to scramble for new leaders.
In just a year since its founding, the party "Podemos" - We Can - has overturned the two party system in place since Spain embraced democracy in the 1970s. It is now polling around even with the ruling People's Party (PP) and main opposition Socialists, and has even led in some polls.
[. . .]
Podemos has set up hundreds of local assemblies known as "circulos" across the country, staging unruly weekly meetings at which Spaniards can vent the anger built up during worst economic crisis since World War Two.
"The one thing we all share is the outrage over what's going on in Spain," said Jose Luis Soriano, a 32-year old unemployed computer scientist who has been coming to the circulo in the upscale Madrid neighborhood of Salamanca since the summer.
[. . .]
Created in January by a group of political science professors from the Complutense University in Madrid and led by charismatic 36-year old Pablo Iglesias, the party is tapping into the sentiment behind the "Indignados" movement of youths that occupied Spanish squares in 2011.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/rise-spanish-populists-overturns-two-party-system-070629468.html
Rise of Spanish populists overturns two-party system
By By Julien Toyer
Reuters
December 29, 2014
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