Madrid - The Spanish "Indignado" protesters who inspired the worldwide Occupy movement are out to conquer city halls and regional governments across Spain in elections on Sunday.
After swamping Spanish squares and streets from 2011 onwards to rage against unemployment, corruption and crisis-linked spending cuts, the onetime street movements have morphed to become parties and are now running for office.
Two new electoral contenders have harnessed the popular unrest of the "Indignado" movement: centrist party Ciudadanos and left-wing Podemos, which has the support of countless smaller "citizen platforms".
They have transformed Spain's political landscape ahead of a general election due around November -- and Sunday's regional and local elections are being seen as a key test of their growing strength.
"In practically all the main provincial towns there are citizen platforms running for office," said Pablo Simon, a political scientist at Madrid's Carlos III University.
"They could decide the result in many cases -- if not by winning the city hall then at least by coming second."
The new groups are challenging the two big parties that have taken turns running Spain for more than 30 years: the conservative governing Popular Party (PP) and the main opposition Socialists.
Polls have consistently shown the PP losing support and in recent surveys the protest groups were polling strongly in Spain's two biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona.
In the race for mayor in the conservative stronghold of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, a 71-year-old former judge running for the Podemos-backed movement Ahora Madrid, was level on votes in one poll with the combative PP stalwart Esperanza Aguirre.
In Barcelona, an official poll showed the "Indignada" activist Ada Colau in first place, though she would need to make an alliance to govern the city.
Polls show the tide could also start to turn in smaller northern regions, where Podemos could enter regional government coalitions.
"Podemos could finish second in Aragon and in Asturias," said Simon. "In Navarra it may even come first. Those could be the first places where the new parties get a chance to govern."
AFP
