Interview: Spain faces a "fractured" 2015 in which pacts will dominate: Anasagasti

The year 2015 will be a 'fractured" year in Spanish politics, veteran politician Inaki Anasagasti has explained in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua.

The political climate has been altered going into the year by the rise of left wing party Podemos, which currently leads the opinion polls and which threatens to overturn the traditional two-party structure led by the ruling People's Party (PP) and the opposition Socialists (PSOE), something Anasagasti believed would make 2015 a long and difficult year.

"I think both the PP and the PSOE are worried, because there is an end of an era coming, which is the end of the period of the 'transition,' (Spain's road to democracy which began with the death of the Dictator General Franco in November 1975)," Anasagasti told Xinhua.

Anasagasti, a member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) is one of the veteran voices in Spanish politics, having been a member of the Basque Parliament between 1980 and 1986, a deputy in the Spanish Congress from 1986 until 2004, and a member of the Senate since 2004.

During this period, he has earned a reputation for being outspoken and for the way he looks at political issues, as he does not necessarily follow strict party lines.

One of the problems of Spain's return to democracy during the late 1970's and early 1980's, he said, was the lack of separation of powers between judiciary and government, which has "led to the corruption which is impregnating everything," and a situation that "citizens will not tolerate," he said.

With Spain set for four different elections during 2015 with votes for the Andalusia and Catalan regional parliaments scheduled for March and September, local and regional elections in May, and a general election scheduled for the end of the year, it will be a busy political year with "political pacts and fragmentation," Anasagasti.

The veteran politician said the coming months would see "a big effort (by the established parties) to break down Podemos' ethical anti-corruption argument and to show they are no different to other parties."

Whether or not this will be effective, he explained, was debatable because people are so "fed up, that they want to punish" with their votes. "They are not voting in favor of something, but against something."

Looking at the elections facing Spain this year, he commented that the elections in the Catalan region were important, "to see whether or not the strength has gone out of the Catalan independence movement," while the local elections in May "would be especially important in Barcelona and Madrid."

Anasagasti highlighted that neither the PP, nor the PSOE, nor the United Left (IU) currently have candidates to stand in Madrid, which reflects that, "there has never been a situation of so much political convulsion as we are seeing now."

Of course the Spanish political year will be affected by external factors, with the success or failure of the new Syriza-led Greek government likely to affect voter confidence in Podemos as the two parties share close links.

Meanwhile, the unearthing of other corruption scandals such as the hidden HSBC accounts on the so-called 'Falciani list,' could also affect voting trends, especially if more high-profile names are revealed as tax dodgers, and as Anasagasti commented, "Falciani is just one bank...there are around 100 banks in Switzerland."

All of which means that it is becoming increasingly hard to predict the outcome of what will be an intense, fascinating, and decisive year in Spain. Endit