IN THE shade of a futuristic curving roof of wood and concrete slats, some 2,000 people have gathered at the Plaza de la Encarnación in the heart of Seville for a campaign rally by Unidos Podemos (“Together we can”), Spain’s new left-wing party. Among them are Luis Maroto, a teacher, and Reyes Santana, a pharmacist, both in their 30s, and their 14-day-old baby, Rafa. Ms Santana used to vote for the centre-left Socialists, who have governed Spain for 21 of the past 34 years. Unable to open her own business, she still works in her mother’s pharmacy. This time her vote, and that of Mr Maroto, will go to Podemos. “They have restored hope,” he says.
If the polls are right Podemos, formed only in 2014, will overtake the Socialist party in the election on June 26th to become the main force on the Spanish left. It will thus become the chief adversary of the centre-right People’s Party (PP) of Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister since 2011. That would present Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist leader, with an agonising choice: allow the PP to remain in power, or play second fiddle to Pablo Iglesias (pictured), Podemos’s leader, in a left-wing government. The first…
