New parties and new ways of candidate selection in Spain

This chapter analyzes empirically how candidate selection has evolved in recent times in the case of Spain. As other Southern European countries, Spain has witnessed a sharp decline in institutional confidence and growing political disaffection in the wake of the Great Recession. The sharp decline in vote share of the two major parties (PP and PSOE) has eroded an imperfect bipartisanship, given rise to a more complex scenario in which two recently created parties (Ciudadanos on the centre and Podemos on the left) compete to be pivotal players in the political process. This has had a major impact on the process of candidate selection. First, as the new parties were built on an anti-establishment discourse targeting the power of traditional political apparatus, both Podemos and Ciudadanos have put in place more inclusive ways of selecting candidates although with some mechanisms of control of the party elites. Secondly, in an attempt to reconnect with their traditional electorates, the established parties (PP and PSOE) have moved in the direction of opening new ways of participation. Although these changes are still in the making, the process of candidate selection in Spain is expected to change even more substantially in the years to come.