7. The Unfolding of Spain’s Political Crisis: From the Squares to the Ballot Box

Spain’s economic crisis became a political crisis from 2011, when protest movements erupted in response to the direct effects of the former and the austerity regime that followed. However, this chapter suggests that the particularities of developments from 2011 are explicable not simply with reference to the proximate economic crisis but require an examination of Spain’s broader transition from dictatorship from the 1970s and its Europeanisation thereafter. Prioritising stability, that transition was built upon the marginalisation or incorporation of non-mainstream groups and the formation of a narrow two-party system. It is against this backdrop that this chapter traces post-2011 events: the emergence of the ‘indignados’ movement, the growth of separatism in Catalonia and the institutional challenges to the status quo at both local and national levels.