Roundup: Tightest election campaign in history officially starts in Spain

The closest general election campaign in Spanish history officially began at midnight on Thursday initiating 16 days of frantic political activity ahead of the vote on December 20.

In contrast with other elections, which were contested mainly between the governing People's Party (PP) and the opposition Socialists (PSOE), this time there are four parties contesting the majority of the vote with the rise of the center-right Citizens (Ciudadanos) and the left wing Podemos in the fray, along with other groups such as the United Left and various regional and nationalist parties.

The eruption of Podemos and Citizens has had a major effect on voting intentions with the latest opinion polls pointing to a four-way split, all be it with the PP winning the largest amount of votes and Podemos lagging slightly behind.

The campaign centers around the economic recovery which has slowly taken place over the four years of the government of Mariano Rajoy, with opposition groups pointing out this has come at great expense to the majority of the Spanish people, and that although unemployment is slowly being reduced, the vast majority of jobs that are created are both precarious and low paid.

Rajoy's party has also been damaged by a seemingly never-ending stream of corruption scandals, such as the Punica an Gurtel, favors for votes scandal and the Barcenas scandal. This case involving the former PP Treasurer implies the party habitually received and made payments in 'black' money, while the case of Rodrigo Rato, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, who has been implicated for fraud, tax avoidance and money laundering, also damaged the PP image.

Perhaps because of his failure to deal with corruption, Rajoy is the least popular of the four main leaders, although he may win support for his stance in opposing the Catalan nationalist movement led by Artur Mas.

It looks increasingly as if Citizens could hold the balance of power in Spain, with their leader Albert Rivera the most popular political leader. Untainted by scandal so far, Rivera is able to offer a clean slate to Spaniards even though he tends to be ambiguous over just where he stands politically.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, who formed the party from the May 15 anti-austerity movement, cannot be accused of ambiguity, but while his left-wing stance is attractive to young and first time voters, it finds little favor with Spain's conservative older generations.

Meanwhile PSOE leader, Pedro Sanchez began the campaign asking people to "vote for a Socialist majority." A majority looks impossible but all leaders know the importance of winning more votes than their rivals on December 20 as it is agreed the party which 'wins' most votes will have the first chance to form a coalition government.

With 40 percent of voters said to still be undecided, that means two frantic weeks of campaigning which will make or break the four parties and decide the political and perhaps also the moral future of Spain for the next four years and possibly beyond. Endit