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Spain’s repeat election fails to break deadlock
MADRID, Nov 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s Socialists faced tough talks to
form a government on Monday after the party emerged on top but weakened from
a repeat election which produced an even more divided parliament and
propelled far-right Vox into third place.
Neither the left nor the right bloc are anywhere near an absolute majority
in the 350-seat assembly following Sunday’s polls, prolonging a political
deadlock in the eurozone’s fourth largest economy after a similar result in
the previous general election in April.
The “elections did not solve the difficulties in achieving a governing
majority. On the contrary, (they) worsened them,” top-selling daily newspaper
El Pais wrote in an editorial.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez triggered the repeat polls — Spain’s fourth
in four years — after his Socialists failed to reach an agreement with other
parties to forge a parliamentary majority in April.
But his gamble resulted in the party winning just 120 parliamentary seats
— three fewer than in April — while far-left Podemos party slumped to 35
seats from 42 the last time around.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias urged the left to unite this time and said
he was willing to start negotiating with Sanchez. However their two parties
together would still need the support of several smaller parties to build a
working majority of 176 seats in parliament.
The main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) recovered from its
worst ever showing in April, finishing second with 88 seats, up from 66,
while Vox was the biggest winner.
It won 52 seats — more than doubling the 24 it took during its April
parliamentary debut in the most significant showing by a far-right faction
since Spain’s return to democracy following dictator Francisco Franco’s death
in 1975.
– ‘Practically impossible’ –
The deepening Catalan separatist crisis played squarely into the hands of
the far right, which has vowed to clamp down aggressively on Catalonia’s
independence drive.
Catalonia was rocked by days of mass, sometimes violent, pro-independence
rallies after Spain’s Supreme Court on October 14 sentenced nine politicians
and activists to jail for up to 13 years for their role in a failed secession
bid in 2017.
“My hypothesis is it will be practically impossible to form a government
in Spain… It will be harder than in the past,” said Joan Botella, a
political science professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (AUB).
“All parties have a rival to their left, another rival to their right, and
that blocks strategic options,” he added.
Business-friendly Ciudadanos, which had been another option as a governing
partner for the Socialists, suffered a drubbing, winning just 10 seats, down
from 57.
On Monday, Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera resigned, saying it was “the
responsible thing to do”.
– ‘Change in criteria’ –
The Socialist have hinted they would like to govern in a minority and have
appealed for “generosity” and a “sense of responsibility” to allow it to do
so.
“We ask for a change in criteria from everyone, of generosity in the
interests of this country,” Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said in an
interview with public television.
The Socialist Party is already pressuring the PP to abstain from voting
during a confidence vote in parliament to allow it to form a government.
But Eurasia analyst Frederic Santini said that given the improved
performance of the right bloc, the “PP’s leadership will now likely be more
comfortable with the idea of a new election…and therefore even more
reluctant to back a Socialist government.”
Oriol Bartomeus, another AUB political scientist, said the PP was
“threatened by the rise of Vox, and as a result has much less incentive to
join forces with the Socialists.”
Spain has been mired in political paralysis for four years since Podemos
and Ciudadanos entered parliament following a December 2015 election that
shattered the decades-long hegemony of the Socialists and the PP.
BSS/AFP/RY/1743 hrs