Plaid Cymru: Welsh economy 'is in decline' Leader of the the Welsh national party Plaid Cymru, Leanne Wood, has said that "alternative radical platforms" are gaining ground because mainstream politics is "clearly failing." Speaking to the Today programme's Evan Davis ahead of the local elections on May 3, she said that Plaid Cymru describes itself as "community champions" and is "a decentralist socialist party." "It's about rolling up sleeves and getting involved in grassroots projects," she said. When asked why Wales appears to be falling behind the rest of the United Kingdom, she said that "we do have a weak economy and what we've done in the past isn't working now." "No one else is going to get us out of our economic decline," she said.