News Analysis: Spain wakes up to new political reality after regional elections

Spain woke up to a new political reality on Monday morning in the wake of the regional and local elections.

These elections in which control of 13 regions and over 5,000 municipalities were up for grabs have produced a significant change in voting patterns in which the left-wing collective, Podemos and the center-right party Citizens have shown they are now part of Spanish political reality, while support for the ruling Popular Party plummeted.

The Popular Party (PP) of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was quick to proclaim itself the winner of Sunday's vote, which some analysts say is a bitter "victory" for PP.

Although it is true that the PP were the most voted for group on the day, their share of the vote plummeted from 37.5 percent in the 2011 regional elections and 44 percent in the 2011 general elections, to just 27 percent as over 2.5 million voters deserted them.

As a result the PP lost its overall majority in every one of Spain's regions and also in traditional strongholds such as Valencia, Madrid, Zaragoza and Valladolid.

With the general election just six months away these results place Rajoy's leadership under the spotlight. Following the party's defeat in the Andalusian elections in March, Rajoy commented that his party had taken note of the voters' message and would adapt accordingly, now two months later voters all over Spain have given the same message.

The worrying thing for the PP is that this election setback comes as the economy is showing signs of growth and unemployment is starting to fall, all be it with the creation of temporary and low paid jobs.

The problem for the PP is twofold: on the one hand many do not forgive the party for their drastic austerity policies over the last four years and on the other the PP is seen as the party of corruption.

Rajoy's four years in office, and the last two years especially, have been linked with the uncovering of a series of damaging corruption scandals such as the Gurtel and Punica scandals which have seen important PP members linked with accepting cash for favors on a wide scale.

Meanwhile, the Barcenas scandal, named after the former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas has seen him and the two previous PP treasurers indicted for fraud and money laundering and the party itself accused of tax evasion, while Barcenas' accounts point to many key figures allegedly accepting cash payment in "black" money.

What added to public doubt over the party also includes the misuse of credit cards from former directors of Bankia that needed a government bailout three years ago and the Noos Corruption case involving the Infanta Cristina.

This has led to the creation of the populist parties Podemos and Citizens (Ciudadanos), both of whom enjoyed a good day in Sunday's vote.

One of Podemos' great successes is in mobilizing the youth vote with many who would probably not have bothered voting turning out at the polls to support them, something that was evident in Madrid and Barcelona, where anti-eviction activist Ana Colau's "Barcelona in Common" party were the surprise winners.

Citizens were less successful, winning 6.5 percent of the vote, mainly from dissatisfied former PP voters and although that was below what opinion polls had predicted it was enough to see them enter into 10 regional authorities and they could form part of the Madrid regional government if they pace with the PP candidate Cristiana Cifuentes.

Meanwhile, the Socialists saw their vote share fall by 700,000, most of which went to Podemos, but will be satisfied with a day which saw them win in the regions of Asturias and Extremadura. Endit