MADRID — At least 100,000 supporters of Podemos, the left-wing party that is threatening to overhaul Spain’s bipartisan party system, marched in downtown Madrid on Saturday in a show of force at the beginning of a busy year of elections.
The “march for change” was the most important rally organized by Podemos since it emerged as a newcomer in Spanish politics last May, when it won almost 8 percent of the Spanish vote in elections for the European Parliament.
That result — just a few months after the party’s official formation — helped deny the governing conservative Popular Party and the opposition Socialists a majority of votes for the first time since the return to democracy in the late 1970s.
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Ms. Buj, who held a sign that read, “Yes, united, we can,” said that she was “among the lucky ones who have work,” but that she would vote for Podemos because “it’s time to give some dignity back to the Spanish people.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 1, 2015, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Thousands March in Spain To Support Left-Wing Party . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
