Spain is facing a political impasse
By Athena Papakosta
Spain is facing a political impasse. Last Sunday’s snap election was completed and, in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, forming a government is out of the question.
Alberto Núñez Feijo’s conservative People’s Party may be the first party to secure the largest number of seats (136) in the Spanish parliament, but it cannot form a government of its own.
The Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez finished second with 47 seats behind the People’s Party but with two more seats in this electoral battle (122).
The far-right VOX remained the third party, falling from 52 seats to 33, while Yolanda Diath’s left-wing formation Sumar remained in fourth place with 31 seats.
The next day in Spain will bring, as everything seems, another election. But until the new polls, the country will seem divided in two.
How the political game is shaped
The opinion polls showed the victory of the conservative People’s Party, but without independence. And that happened. Everyone knew that, in this case, his likely partner for governing the country would be Santiago Abascal’s far-right VOX party. After all, the results of last May’s local and regional elections in Spain and the subsequent far-right collaboration in the region of Valencia and the municipality of Elche pointed the way to the day after the early elections of July 23.
However, VOX sank on Sunday, losing 19 seats. Consequently, the People’s Party and VOX have a combined 169 seats and are seven seats short of an absolute majority of 176 seats in the Spanish national delegation out of a total of 350 seats.
Alberto Núñez Feijo begins consultations in order to avoid the possibility of another appeal to the polls. He may try to form a minority government. However, this scenario seems improbable since, for it to come true, Sanchez’s Socialists would have to abstain from the vote of confidence. However, they do not seem at all inclined to do so. So, Pedro Sanchez is back in the game. However, in order to emerge victorious, he will have to make deals with the “devil”.
The Socialist party and Sumar have a combined 153 seats. In short, they are 23 seats short of the required majority to form a government. The centre-left alliance to continue governing will have to win the support of regionalist factions, namely the Basque and Catalan separatist tendencies and then… things get complicated.
The fissures of Spain
Arnaldo Ortegi’s Basque separatist party EH Bildu won six seats, one more than in 2019. It is seen as the successor regime to the political arm of the Basque terrorist group ETA. Its leader, Arnaldo Ortegi, is a convicted ETA member having served 14 years in prison. It is not a “red flag” only for the supporters of the right in Spain but also for many socialists. He is currently one of the keys to paving the way for Sanchez’s return to power, and the Socialist Party and Sumar believe they will have his support. They are similarly optimistic about the other Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) which won five seats.
But in Catalonia, where in 2017 the separatists declared their victory in the referendum banned by the Supreme Court of Spain, the road is not paved with rose petals.
Pedro Sánchez could get the required support from the left-wing separatist party of the Republican Left of Catalonia, ERC which gathered 7 seats. Already the deputy general secretary of the party, Marta Villalta, has emphasized that the ERC is willing to support a government under Sanchez in order to prevent a right-far-right coalition in Spain.
But at the same time, the Catalan pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya of self-exiled Carles Puigdemont, prosecuted by Spanish justice for leading a failed attempt to break away from Catalonia, is also seen as indispensable to Pedro Sánchez and is emerging as a moderator with six seats. However, the Junts are not ruled out asking for trade-offs that could even include Puigdemont’s return to the country and a new referendum on Catalan independence, greatly limiting the Socialist leader’s options.
The way out of the impasse
It is a fact that Spain still lives with nightmares from the past and this was also reflected in the election result of Sunday where two opposite worlds collided.
Now, Feijo is looking for supporters with little chance of finding them, while, at the same time, Sanchez, who seems to have more, should be able to negotiate with them, but playing their game. If neither succeeds and secures a majority within two months of the first vote for the prime minister then the country will have to go to the polls again and this time the campaign will be even more divisive and the climate further polarized.
Source :Skai
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.