Galician Left Alternative
Spain: Left unity elusive in European poll pre-selections
"Before the crisis:
Galicia: Anova's bruising congress a ‘collective apprenticeship’
By Dick Nichols
United Left national convention: ‘This is the Spanish SYRIZA!’
[For more reports and discussion on political developments in Spain, click HERE.]
By Dick Nichols, Madrid
January 4, 2013 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- On the last day of the 10th federal convention of the Spain’s United Left (Izquierda Unida, IU), Juan Peña, young IU organisation secretary for the Castilian town of Valladolid, summed up his view of the impact of the indignado (15M) movement on the IU, one of the oldest broad left formations in Europe: “15M brought IU good news and bad news. The good news was that our programmatic proposals hit the mark, shared by the people who poured into the streets. The bad news was that the people thought that these proposals were new, their own.”
Spain: As two-party system breaks down, what prospects for a ‘Spanish SYRIZA’?
Demonstrators march to the Spanish parliament against austerity measures announced by the government in Madrid, September 26, 2012.
By Dick Nichols, Barcelona
October 28, 2012 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The economic, social and territorial crisis in the Spanish state is morphing into a crisis of the two-party system that has provided Popular Party (PP) or Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) administrations for the last 30 years. Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalist forces (left and right), and the United Left (IU) and Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) parties are gaining support. However, only a brave gambler would put serious money on the future evolution of this crisis. While the two-party set-up has been severely weakened, a replacement party with enough popular support to impose a different solution has yet to emerge.