Podemos to Support General Strike if Rajoy Is Re-Elected

The leader of the anti-austerity political party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, called his followers on Saturday to be ready to support the general strike announced by unions, and take to the streets if acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is re-elected for a second term. 

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The resignation of the opposition Socialist party (PSOE) leader, Pedro Sanchez, has offered new hopes to Rajoy, who has not been able to form a government with his conservative People's Party, or PP.

"If there is a general strike we have to have a fighting machine to prove that we are the opposition, because we can help organizations of the working class to call the strike," Iglesias said during an event in the city of Merida.

Iglesias also say that "some guys" are going to regret for delivering the government to the conservative PP party.

Recently the General Union of Workers —historically affiliated with the PSOE— announced it will not accept a new government of Rajoy, since the Socialists are expected to abstain in a key confidence vote that will allow Rajoy to finally succeed. 

With 118 seats in the parliament, the PSOE is the kingmaker in Spain's political system. Most of the party's members have already expressed their support for the idea of allowing Mariano Rajoy to form a minority government.

The move is also intended to avoid a third election in less than a year and thus end the political deadlock in Spain. Rajoy has won in the past two elections, but it has not reached the 176 seats needed to form a government on its own.

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In the last election this summer, the coalition "Unidos Podemos" which brings together Podemos and the Communists and the Greens, gained 71 seats in parliament, breaking the decades-long two party stranglehold on government. 

The left-wing coalition has the support of millions of Spaniards tired of austerity measures implemented by the PSOE and the PP governments, including cuts to social services, pensions and salaries, labor market reforms and privatization.