the declaration. Social discontent The Spanish anti-austerity movement, also known as the 15-M Movement or Indignants Movement, born on the eve of the 2011 municipal and regional elections, had resulted in an increase of street protests and demonstrations calling for a more democratic governmental system, a halt to spending cuts and tax increases and an overall rejection of Spain's two-party system formed by the People's Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). After the PP's arrival to government and its subsequent breach of electoral promises as well as the emergence of corruption cases, protests intensified. Social mobilization channeled through various protest actions, such as Surround the Congress ("Rodea el Congreso"), the so-called Citizen Tides ("Mareas Ciudadanas") or the Marches for Dignity'' ("Marchas de la Dignidad"). Despite the PP's enormous loss of support, the main opposition party, the PSOE, remained unable to channel this social discontent and to regain lost support, with pundits hypothesizing that the memory of Zapatero's last government and its economic management remained fresh in voters' minds. A series of negative regional election results throughout 2012, coupled with an internal crisis in 2013 and the threat of rupture from the party's Catalonia partner, the PSC, further weakened the PSOE, with Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba's leadership being put in question as his popularity ratings plummeted. The crisis was temporarily settled after the party's Political Conference in November 2013, with the question on the party's leadership being initially postponed for late 2014. All of this culminated in the 2014 European Parliament election. Claims from the ruling PP government that economic recovery was already underway did not prevent a major collapse in support for both main parties, together falling below 50% of the votes for the first time ever. This came coupled with the confirmation of a large rise in support for minor national parties that polls had partly predicted, but also a surprisingly strong performance for the new Podemos party, which from that moment, together with Citizens (C's), began to attract the support of those disaffected with both PP and PSOE, according to opinion polls. PSOE leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba resigned the day after the European election. A PSOE extraordinary conference was held, resulting in Pedro Sánchez being elected as new party leader. The election was also said to have hastened the abdication of the 39 year-reigning King Juan Carlos I, already weakened from a deteriorating health and a