Leftist Mayors Surge Into Power in Spain

Well, we've got our share of Marxist mayors over here, from Eric Garcetti to Bill de Blasio.

But Spain's got it particularly bad, man.

At WSJ, "Shift seen as possible predictor for national elections later this year":

In Barcelona, the social activist elected mayor says she will clamp down on the overdevelopment of tourism, while allowing some government decisions to be determined by online referendums. In A Coruña, home to three of the 10 richest Spaniards, the former law professor taking charge at city hall vows to implement “99 measures for the 99% of the citizenry,” including a reduction of his own salary as mayor.

A new wave of leftist leaders is taking power in city halls across Spain on Saturday, replacing career politicians sullied by economic crises and corruption scandals. Generally political neophytes, they were chosen by alliances among left-leaning parties and citizen movements that finished strongly in May 24 municipal and regional elections.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party lost absolute majorities in 127 of the 154 largest cities it won in elections in 2011. In coalition bargaining that could stretch into the summer, the party also stands to lose control in several of the nine Spanish regions where it ran as the incumbent.

This urban shift could be a harbinger of national elections later this year in which Mr. Rajoy has said he would seek a second term. Cities “are to a large extent showcases for trends in national politics,” said Carlos Flores Juberías, a constitutional law professor and political analyst at the University of Valencia, noting that success in local races presaged national electoral triumphs by the Socialist Party in the 1980s and the Popular Party in the 1990s...

Radical leftists stateside are hoping that our crop of Marxist mayors will be a harbinger as well. Doubtful, but we'll see. For all of Hillary Clinton's leftist preening, she just doesn't come off as an authentic acolyte of Che Guevara and the like. As it is Obama's Marxism has only been halted by the system of separation of powers created by the founders, and even then Che Barack has been roundly criticized for his far-left executive authoritarianism, not the least from ideological leftists.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us restoring limited government (and basic human decency) to this country in the years ahead. Thank goodness we're not so far gone as the unlucky bastards about to be plunged into a communist nightmare in Spain.

Keep reading, in any case.