A battering in local polls yesterday cast doubt on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s plan that an economic recovery will secure him a second term later this year.

In six months’ time, when the next general election is due, the Spanish economy will be growing at three per cent and half a million jobs will have been created. This was Rajoy’s message as he campaigned across Spain for his conservative People’s Party (PP) before the municipal and regional polls last weekend.

But many voters have hardly felt the recovery and, following a string of corruption scandals that have touched the ruling party, they turned on Sunday to new forces such as the anti-austerity Podemos (‘We Can’) and market-friendly Ciudadanos (‘Citizens’).

“It’s time to reflect. The party is badly hit... For sure, we’re going the wrong way. We are the party that won the most votes but voters sent us a message of anger,” said a senior PP member, who declined to be named.

“We haven’t seriously done self-criticism ... Something is not working and we have to properly diagnose what,” he said before a meeting of the PP’s executive committee yesterday.

They promised a lot but they are falling short

While the PP got more votes than any other party in the municipal polls as well as in nine of the 13 regions that voted this weekend, it suffered its worst electoral result in more than two decades. It lost about 2.5 million votes from the last local elections four years ago and close to five million from its landslide victory in the 2011 general election.

Even loyal PP voters believe their party is heading for more trouble unless it changes.

“They need to find a way to give jobs to the young. The message that the economy is rebounding doesn’t reach people,” said Salvador Soriano, a retired cook from Valencia. “They promised a lot, but they’re falling short,” he said.

Spanish unemployment is almost 24 per cent and more than double that for the young. Even under the government’s forecasts, the overall jobless rate will still be 17.7 per cent in 2017.