Spanish elections: leftist mayors work to convince people to vote again for change

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/16/spanish-elections-leftist-mayors-reform-vote-for-change

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For the past six months they have been the face of the country’s political transformation, clashing repeatedly with the establishment as they seek to push forward their ambitious agendas. Now, with the countdown on to Spain’s most volatile general election in recent history, the country’s crop of recently elected leftist mayors are working to convince Spaniards once again to give their vote to change.

“We have to ensure that this wave of change reaches parliament with the maximum possible force,” the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, told the Guardian. In May’s municipal elections, Spanish voters sent a cluster of indignados – figures aligned with the impromptu revolt of thousands rallying against a political establishment felt to be out of sync with the people – into the halls of power. Leftist mayors were suddenly at the helm of more than half a dozen cities across the country.

“We’ve shown that we can make it into government. And despite not having been there for 20 years, we can do it well and even better than those who were there before,” said Colau, a well-known housing activist who ventured into politics as the leader of Barcelona en Comú, a grassroots coalition made up of several political parties and thousands of citizens.

In the run-up to the general election, Colau has become a mainstay on the campaign trail, backing Podemos at rallies across the country and pointing to the achievements of her municipal government in an effort to galvanise voters. “We’ve shown that we’re a serious option for governing,” she said.

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It is a tough sell in the current political climate. The conservative People’s party, home of the current prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, is currently leading all the major polls. While the PP is expected to fall short of an absolute majority in Sunday’s election, polls suggest Spaniards are heeding his call for continuity rather than risk jeopardising the country’s fragile economic recovery or the country’s breakup.

Other critics take aim at Podemos, pointing to the situation of its Greek ally Syriza to sow doubt about whether the Spanish party would be able to fulfil its promise of working within the European Union to create an alternative to austerity.

Colau pointed to the situation in Barcelona to counter the criticisms. “When we made it to government, the world did not end,” she said. “The economy in Barcelona is better than ever; exports are up, we’ve had more tourists this summer.”

Her government has acted on its pledge to fine banks with empty homes on their books, jumpstarted plans to add 8,000 properties to the city’s stock of public housing and launched plans to provide employment for those in the city who have been unemployed for more than a year.

At times, her government’s plans have been stymied by a lack of cooperation at higher levels, said Colau. “There are important structural projects that can’t be touched because they depend on central government or European legislation,” such as infrastructure or public transport projects. The realisation was chief among the factors that sent Colau onto the campaign trail in the general elections.

The sentiment has been echoed across the country. In Valencia, Joan Ribó, the ecologist turned mayor of the city, has also been rallying votes for a coalition between his Compromís movement and Podemos. “Now is the moment to reinforce what happened on 24 May, as there are things that we can’t change from within city hall,” he recently told voters. “We need a government in Madrid that helps us, rather than moves in the opposite direction.”

The disparity between the PP-led central government and the grassroots measures being advocated by leftist mayors is problematic, said Ferrol mayor Jorge Suárez. “We’re acting more like barriers against a system that won’t stop cutting back social rights,” he said of his Ferrol en Común party.

One of the most striking examples of the tug-of-war playing out between the various levels of government comes from the world of bullfighting. While leftist mayors have sought to eliminate subsidies and push forward bans on the blood sport, the central government is contemplating legislation that would see bullfighting classified as a special cultural interest, allowing the industry to ignore municipal bans and appeal limits on public funding.

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In an election where most parties have made reform a central plank of their campaigns, the leftist mayors aren’t exclusively backing Podemos: in Zaragoza, mayor Pedro Santisteve and his Zaragoza en Común party have turned up at rallies for both Podemos and the United Left. “I’m happy to support all the forces that are working to transform and democratise this country,” he explained to El País.

Along with political activism, the leftist mayors are also weighing in with their experiences from the front lines. For the past six months they’ve been at the forefront of pushing change, working against the grain to implement the kinds of reforms being bandied about by the main opposition parties at the national level.

Earlier this year, the Madrid mayor, Manuela Carmena, provided a rare window into the frustrations of being a political outsider. “Almost all the traditional political groups have media that support them,” she told reporters. Pointing to the broad left coalition Ahora Madrid that she leads, she added: “We arrived as orphans and we’ve realised that the language of truth can become the language of discredit.”

In contrast with the other leftist mayors in the country, Carmena has opted to remain neutral in the run-up to the general election. “I don’t consider myself a professional politician,” Carmena explained to the Guardian. “I don’t have any great interest in participating in politics.”

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Since taking power in Madrid, she and her team have helped overturn eviction orders for 70 families, safeguarded some 2,000 rental contracts for the risk of eviction and set aside €10m to help refugees arriving in the city.

With Sunday’s election expected to send dozens of reform-minded politicians into central government, Carmena was quick to offer the lessons she has learned in the past six months. “Start with the small things,” she said. “And look for overlaps that exist between different sectors of society.”

For Colau, the lessons learned in the last six months include those that come from her high-profile transition from activist to mayor of Barcelona. In August she made national headlines when she said on Facebook that her inability to help individual cases sometimes left her crying with anger. “Apparently I have more power than ever but in some ways I feel more powerless,” she wrote.

Months later she said frustration had since been outweighed by the satisfaction of being able to do more for a greater number of people through structural solutions, such as expanding social housing in the city. “But you don’t build something like that in two days – you need time,” she said.

She’s hoping that the groundwork she and the other leftist mayors across the country have laid in the past months will now be enough to convince Spaniards to push forward. “Rather than turning our backs on the transformation that started during the municipal elections,” she said, “this election should be about continuing to open up spaces for change and hope.”