The countdown is underway for the local elections in May and one word is on the lips of everyone; Podemos, the new left-wing protest party which is ahead in the opinion polls and which threatens to knock the Spanish political establishment for six. But Podemos is not only a threat to the ruling Partido Popular it is set to grab thousands of votes away from the opposition socialists. So how could that leave the Balearics after the local elections in May? Well, the simple answer is that we could have a minority government of either Podemos, the Spanish Socialist Party or the ruling Partido Popular. Podemos won´t pact with anyone and the chances of a Partido Popular/Socialist pact are slim to say the least. So, we could be looking at four years of political uncertainty. But that is in local government circles. In the council elections Iunderstand that Podemos could even win some councils with an outright majority. One of the areas which the party is targetting is Calvia. In the last European elections in the municipality Podemos had a fairly decent share of the vote. Granted, they were still behind the two mainstream parties but the party did have an impact. Okay, it would seem rather unlikely that a council which at the moment is ruled by the Partido Popular with a majority all of a sudden changes to Podemos but that is the nature of Spanish politics at the moment. It is in a state of change. Interesting times ahead.