Spanish voters closed the door on far-right Vox party in Sunday’s elections, and despite the victory of centre-right Partido Popular, a progressive bloc of the Socialist party and the Sumar platform could form a new government – if they gain support from Basque and Catalan pro-independence parties.
The possibility of a right-wing governing coalition between Partido Popular, the election’s winner with 136 seats, and Vox with 33 seats faded away as they fell short 7 of the 176 seats needed for an absolute majority.
PSOE and Sumar both together won 153 seats, far from the absolute majority in a Parliament of 350 seats, but are confident of receiving the support of Basque nationalists parties PNV and EH-Bildu, as well as Catalan pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), which already facilitated Sánchez inauguration as prime minister in 2019.
Unlike in 2019, Catalan pro-independence Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) and their seven seats are essential to guarantee a stable government. However, getting their support will be a tricky mission for the socialists, who are set to demand an independence referendum.
‘We will not make Pedro Sánchez president in exchange for nothing. Our priority is Catalonia, not the governability of the Spanish state; we are not going to move a millimetre’, Junts per Catalunya’s lead candidate Miriam Nogueras said in a press conference following the election results.
‘Pedro Sánchez has a lot of outstanding debts with Catalonia, and we owe them nothing’, she added.
PSOE and Sumar to start coalition negotiations
“Spaniards, Comrades. There are more of us, many more of us who want Spain to move forward, and we will continue to do so”, Sánchez stressed in an improvised speech in front of PSOE’s headquarters in Madrid.
“There were many people worried, and today they will sleep more peacefully”, said Yolanda Díaz, the leader of Sumar.
Díaz took the victory of the progressive bloc for granted and announced that from Monday, 24 July, she would begin talks with all the progressive forces to “guarantee the government of Spain”.
But despite the resonant optimism of the left, a political deadlock and new elections are very likely since the Catalans will demand an independence referendum, which the socialists are not willing to offer. On top of that, the socialists have snatched half the votes from the nationalist parties, and supporting a socialist-led government without a referendum in exchange would further damage support.
Although almost all the polls predicted a landslide victory for the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative party’s lead over the PSOE (122 seats) was 14 seats, much smaller than expected.
Feijóo’s bitter victory
It was a bitter victory and a defeat for the aspirations of the PP, whose aim in these snap elections was not only to win, a goal it achieved largely but to “oust” the acting prime minister and Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez and banish “sanchismo”, in PP’s view the PSOE leader’s “personalist” way of governing.
While Sumar and PSOE will start coalition talks tomorrow, PP candidate Alberto Núñez Feijóo assured that “as the candidate of the most voted party, I believe my duty is to lead that dialogue and try to govern our country”, also calling the socialists and Sumar not to “block Spain” and allow the most voted party to govern.
PP can only enter government if PSOE or Sumar abstain or vote in favour of Feijóo’s inauguration as prime minister, which both parties have ruled out.
At the same time, however, PP has achieved an absolute majority in Spain’s upper house, the Senate, which grants the party the chance to obstacle the legislative agenda of a potential progressive government.
In addition to the bittersweet victory of the PP, the night was marked by a sharp 19 seats loss for Vox (ECR) in comparison to the 2019 elections, certifying the death of a right-wing government as PP and Vox do not sum the necessary majority, even with PP’s substantial increase of 47 seats.
Vox’s candidate Santiago Abascal blamed Feijóo for the ‘demobilisation’ of right-wing voters amid his lack of participation in key debates and accused him of undermining a possible right-wing coalition by ‘whitewashing’ the socialists and asking them to abstain for PP to enter government without the need of Vox’s support.
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Spectre of far-right hangs over heated Spanish electionsSpain heads to the polls on Sunday (23 July) in a potentially close-run general election marked by ideological differences, the spectre of the far-right and irritation at being forced to vote during the summer holidays.
Source: euractiv.com
