Public anger at high unemployment, cuts in government spending on cherished services such as welfare and education and unrelenting political corruption scandals have shaped the two-week election campaign. According to the Spanish Constitution, a government must win a vote of confidence in Parliament with more than 50 percent of the possible 350 votes before taking office. Unidos Podemos wants to improve job security, increase the minimum wage and strengthen the welfare state and other public services. Ciudadanos is willing to talk to both the Popular Party and the Socialists but want no deal with Unidos Podemos. Besides tensions over Catalonia, Spanish politics has been dominated by a national unemployment rate of more than 20 percent for nearly seven years — the second-highest in the EU after Greece — and an unrelenting stream of corruption scandals, mostly involving the Popular Party and the Socialists.
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