Tag Archives: Ciudadanos

Martin Petts

Spain’s historic liberal opportunity

By Martin Petts | Thu 17th December 2015 - 12:41 pm

Albert_Rivera_-_02Buckling under the weight of economic stagnation, endemic corruption and institutional failure, the old duopoly in Spanish politics of the right-leaning Popular Party (PP) and centre-left Socialists is finally breaking down. With just days to go until the general election on 20 December, voters look to be splitting four ways. On the hard left, Podemos has profited from the frustrations of many, but in the centre ground Ciudadanos (C’s) offers new hope for liberal minded voters.

Liberalism tends to be a dirty word in Spain. The country has had precious few popular liberal movements in its history and the label tends to be hijacked by the right, meaning many Spaniards equate the term with a “one rule for them, one for us” mentality, or corporate cronyism.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Sandy Walkington
    Such a newbie...
  • cim
    The easiest way to demonstrate stability around joining the EU would be to get through the ~ten/twenty year accession process without any UK government pulling ...
  • Nigel Ashton
    I first met Simon circa 1978 when we were both on the Home Counties Regional Executive, he as the ULS rep and me as his YL counterpart. We share many of the sam...
  • Andrew Tampion
    " A clever wheeze might also be for the EU to demand we store half our gold reserves in Brussels, to be repatriated in 20 years time provided the UK has not by ...
  • Anthony Harris
    @David Allen do we have any gold reserves left? I thought that Gordon Brown sold them all at the bottom of the market? :-) He sold so many that he caused a s...