Andalucia elections: ‘change’ starts there, says Podemos leader

PODEMOS leader Pablo Iglesias has pinpointed the Andalucian regional elections as the start of his party’s 2015 election campaign.

He told a rally of hundreds of thousands of followers that change would start in Andalucia on March 22.

“The moment of change has come because change is democracy,” he told the crowd in Madrid, adding that Podemos would later beat the PP in national elections.

In a passionate speech he slammed corruption, which had left the country’s richest 1% with the same wealth as the bottom 73%.

Pointing out that the rich and poor divide had grown during the long recession, he said that decisions would no longer be taken in Davos. A place where the leaders ‘fly in their private jets… While humiliating this country with the fraud they call austerity.”

The so called March for Change saw 260 buses arrive in the city from all around the country to support the party that despite only forming exactly a year ago is currently polling around 28 to 30% of Spain’s voting intentions.

Many had travelled from the Costa del Sol and other parts of Andalucia.

It started in Plaza Cibeles at 12 noon and went up to Puerta del Sol, where the Podemos movement draws its roots from the 15M people’s movement of four years ago.

Smiling at the crowd, who treated him like a hero throughout the rally, Iglesias seemed supremely confident.

While not giving interviews, he mouthed ‘hello’ when the Olive Press asked him if he had a message for the hundreds of thousands of expats who had also suffered during the crisis.