LESS than a minute into his speech and Albert Rivera, the leader of Ciudadanos, a centrist party that has stormed the barricades of Spanish politics, is already speaking of reformas estructurales. Mr Rivera wants to liberalise Spain’s labor market, clean out the public administration and overhaul the tax system. These tough prescriptions do not look like vote-winners in a country that has been through the economic wringer. Yet Ciudadanos has risen from single digits in the polls a year ago to around 20% today, and is set to act as kingmaker after Spain’s unpredictable general election on December 20th (see article).
Like bronzed pensioners on the Costa Blanca, several political ideas are seeing out their last days in Spain. One of them is that liberals of Mr Rivera’s sort cannot thrive in southern Europe. Another is the prediction, often heard during the darkest days of the euro crisis, that the cuts countries like Spain had to endure would generate a devastating political blowback. Yet Spain’s…
