In England, immigration is the issue that is drawing people to Nigel Farrange and his right wing UKIP party. In Spain things are very different. The party that is catching the imagination of the young and in many cases, the not so young is Podemos.
In the early nineties, less than on in one hundred living in Spain were immigrants. In 2000 there were 924,000 immigrants registered here. By 2009 that number had risen to 5.6 million. You might have thought that a clampdown on immigration would be a vote catcher but it isn’t.
Instead, Podemos is traditional left wing and centres on core values other than problems with immigration. It seeks to free Spain from both the right wing People’s Party and the centre left PSOE and is led by the charismatic, Pablo Iglesias.
Of course, corruption in the two main parties is a big issue here which may not be the same in England. Following the many cases that have come to light, very few trust politicians from the PSOE and perhaps even more so from the PP. With only a short history, Podemos may be the only “clean” party to vote for.
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