Madrid’s snap election shakes up Spanish politics

ANTONIO MACHADO, a Spanish poet, once referred to Madrid as “the breakwater of all the Spains”. That is the effect a snap election for the capital’s regional government on May 4th is having on national politics. A polarised campaign has roiled both right and left. The contest has prompted Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos, a hard-left party, to step down as Spain’s deputy prime minister to stand in the election himself because, he said, of the risk of “an extreme right-wing government” in the capital. For Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative regional president, it is a battle between “freedom and communism”. In fact the election may be followed by calmer water for Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, and for Spain itself.