By Hanadi Watfa
MADRID, May 23 (KUNA) -- After a few hours voters will huddle to polling stations across Spain to cast their ballot in key regional elections seen as a tough test for the decades-long two-party system.
On Sunday, voters will choose new mayors in more than 8,100 municipalities and elect new governments in 13 of the nation's 17 regions.
The political landscape in Spain is currently undergoing massive and rapid changes than any other time in the history of the country's democratic life, Professor of Sociology at Complutense University of Madrid Fermin Bouza Alvarez said in an interview with KUNA Saturday.
He noted that the emergence of two anti-austerity parties (Podemos and Ciudadanos) -- which have made breakthroughs in short time -- is threatening the ruling center-right People's Party (PP) and the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)'s decades-long dominance of the political life.
Bouza, however, stressed that nobody can imagine the new political map which Sunday's fierce contest is expected to draw.
He suggested that Podemos and Ciudadanos may fail to totally undermine the two-party system but they will create a new reality where four parties instead of two will dominate the political scene.
The Spanish people fed up with status quo and they are ready for the change, he viewed.
Bouza cited the difficult economic situation and the rampant unemployment and corruption as the main causes of the erosion of support to the ruling People's Party (PP) and the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) which changed seats over the past four decades.
Though economic growth is gradually improving, the unemployment rate was at more than 23 percent at the last count and anti-austerity campaigners say recovery is not yet reaching the poorest.
Promising to defend the poor, Podemos started to turn Spanish politics on its head when it won 1.2 million votes in European elections a year ago. A few months later, the support for the newcomer Catalan party Ciudadanos surged too. Many Spaniards consider them as a welcome breath of fresh air.
Podemos is currently the 2nd largest Spanish party by number of members after the ruling People's Party. It became the 3rd largest party within the first 20 days it allowed membership, with 100,000 signing up in that period, and currently has over 350,000 members.
It has called for a renegotiation of austerity measures and seeks to curtail the Treaty of Lisbon.
The center-left Ciudadanos presents itself as a party that offers a mix of liberalism and social democracy in its platform. It is mainly active in Catalonia, where it has nine deputies in the Parliament of Catalonia.
Sunday's election is the second of three local votes leading up to a year-end national election that will measure voters' sentiment and electoral preferences.
Two months ago, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party won the regional elections in Andalusia, southern Spain, with a small majority of 35.5 percent of votes, while the conservative people' party got 26.7 percent of votes. Podemos came third with 14.8 percent followed by the Ciudadanos with 9.3 percent. (end) hnd.ibi