As is often the case with great sporting successes, the Spanish victory in the final against the English fueled a wave of national elation, which for those of such inclinations could also be interpreted as a revival of nationalism.
Controversy over whether national pride following Spain’s soccer success will unite or further polarize an already divided country.
Alvaro Morata, the captain of the Spanish national football team, did not fail to combine the celebration of winning the EURO with irony towards Germany. “Where is Muziala?” he sang on the stage of triumph in the center of Madrid, in front of a delirious crowd, referring to the young star of the German national team, who, together with his team-mates, was eliminated by Furias Rojas already in the quarter-finals.
A little later the members of the mission together with the tens of thousands of excited fans, carried away by national pride, were singing sending the message that “Gibraltar is Spanish”, addressed to London, which claims sovereignty over the small but geopolitically important rocky peninsula.
As is often the case with great sporting successes, the Spanish victory in the final against the English fueled a wave of national elation, which for those of such inclinations could also be interpreted as a revival of nationalism.
A divided country
Foreign correspondents living in Spain have all had more or less the same question in the last week. What will be the impact of this success as a whole on the moods of society and especially on developments in politics? Spain has been a deeply divided country for months. The conservative faction blames Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for his collaboration with Catalan separatists, which both the center-right Popular Party and the far-right Vox see as an act of national betrayal. Alberto Nunez Feijo, leader of the Center Right, has declared his goal to lead to the resignation of the government and new elections as soon as possible. His main tool is the maintenance of polarization and the harsh opposition, with a focus on “national issues”.
“Spain has no government, and since it has no government, it cannot be governed.” This phrase seems to have… stuck in Feijo’s mouth. The leader of Spain’s conservative People’s Party is unable to accept that his party may have taken first place by a narrow margin over the Social Democrats in the last national election but failed to muster a governing majority.
The budget battle
The Christian Democrat politician now hopes that next October, when the 2025 budget is debated, he will be able to bring down Pedro Sanchez’s government and win snap elections at the end of the year. Something like an early Christmas present.
For his part, the Social Democrat prime minister reiterates that he does not intend to resign before the scheduled end date of his term in 2027 and considers it certain that his unstable government, based on the votes of separatist parties, will somehow manage to pass the Parliament the budget.
October is important because it is very likely that local elections will be held again in Catalonia, after last May’s polls did not produce a clear winner and the formation of a local government seems impossible. If this does not happen by August, then the Catalans will be called to the polls again on October 13.
Restless Catalonia
But the pre-election confrontations at the local level may also have an impact on the behavior of the separatist parties in the national Parliament, since “Catalan patriotism” traditionally flares up when it sees polls in front of it.
At the moment the majority in the Parliament of Madrid depends on the two Catalan parties, JxCat (Together for Catalonia) and ERC (Republican Left), which however have not been able to find points of agreement to form a government together with the third leftist, but not separatist Catalunya en Comú (Catalonia Together).
Pedro Sanchezto secure their support, in addition to the amnesty for the leaders of the 2017 referendum on Catalan independence, he also offered a write-off of Barcelona’s debts to Madrid, amounting to about 15 billion euros, which is not only negligible for the next Catalan government.
The separatists have initially pledged to support the proposal of the coalition government of the Socialists with the left-wing Sumar (Total), but the right-wing opposition believes this may change. In any case, Feijo from the very first moment denounced as almost treacherous the agreement with the parties of Catalonia on the occasion of the much-lauded granting of amnesty and does not cease to call for the resignation of the government, which he characterizes as a “concussion” of the demands of the separatists and essentially dangerous for the country.
Troubled partners
Pedro Sanchez, the last Social Democrat head of government alongside Olaf Solz, is also expected to have a rather uneasy summer. However, his party was one of the few governing parties in Europe that did not suffer serious losses in the recent European elections. The same was not the case with the leftist Sumar, which saw its forces significantly reduced and its leader, Yolanda DÃaz, announce her resignation from the leadership.
Developments within Sumar may also have a catalytic effect on the government’s cohesion, since there are many in its ranks who fear that cooperation with the Social Democrats could lead the party to wither, as happened in recent years with Podemos, which essentially they have fallen into political obscurity from being a major political force in the previous decade.
Source :Skai
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