Spain’s election year promises to be busy. It is expected that the parliamentary poll at the end of it will change the essentially two-party system that has been in place since the end of the 1970s transition to democracy. Spaniards appear determined to upset the chess board starting with municipal and regional elections in May, with a foretaste in March, in Andalusia.
This is because Spaniards don’t feel the upswing in the economy yet. There was 1.4 percent growth in 2014, and the forecast for this year is 2 percent.
They aren’t feeling it because unemployment remains obstinately high, a punishing more than 23 percent, with little prospect of any swift reduction, in spite of a slight easing, two years in a row.
Spaniards have also felt the impact of extensive cuts in public spending, part of the centre right government’s austerity policies. Cash help for families with children is among the lowest in the European Union, at around 24 euros per child per month, and only for househo
