Political Deadlock Extended as Spanish Socialists Reject Conservative Government Plan

Political Deadlock Extended as Spanish Socialists Reject Conservative Government Plan

Considering the political turmoil Spain is coping very well

Spaniards are thought of as being easy going when it comes to living in Spain and willing to just go with the flow. They can smile their way through summer and deal with tourists, they can find shade when the sun gets too much, and they can make the most out of any situation.

It’s probably why the Spanish people have such a disconnect with their politicians. The leaders of the country have been stuck in a political deadlock since last December with no one able to agree on who should be in charge. The country was forced to have another election last month and the end result was that there wasn’t much of a result.

Things were a little hopeful after the election in June. In the days following the election incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was left emboldened that his People’s Party increased their vote while the far-left Podemos Party saw their votes go down.

Things changed on Wednesday when the Socialists, currently the second biggest political party in Spain, said that they do not support Rajoy being the prime minister just as Rajoy was getting ready to go back to the job he’s had since 2010.

The leader of the Socialists, Pedro Sánchez ruled out a coalition between his party and the People’s Party even though he is on record saying he would do “whatever it takes” to avoid the need for a third election. Apparently joining forces with the centre-right PP is not something he can do after all.

Rajoy has been trying to convince the leaders of the smaller parties to group up and create a coalition with the PP but he’s not having an easy time doing it. This is because most of these smaller parties were created to fight the PP, not join up with them.

The alternative for these parties is the Socialists, who won the second-most number of votes in both elections. One option is for the Socialists could to join up with the liberal party Ciudadanos and Podemos. The problem here is that Ciudadanos only garnered the fourth-largest number of votes and won only 32 seats, which doesn’t equate to a lot of political clout.

Things were made worse for the socialists following the news that the leader of Ciudadanos, Albert Rivera, said that he and his party would abstain in a confidence vote in a conservative government. He essentially said that if the PP were able to put together a majority government then he wouldn’t fight them.

Rivera said that he was keen to remove the deadlock and move forward and that he believes a technical abstention would be better than having a third election at this point. He also spoke of his hope that the other parties would feel the same way and do the same thing.

An abstention from Ciudadanos would mean that the PP would need to find 23 additional seats to support the 137 they won in the election in order to create a majority parliament. If the Socialists were to also abstain then the election would basically go to the PP but this seems unlikely given Sánchez’s feelings about the PP and Rajoy.

So Spain is still where they were last December. Well, the economy is doing better, as is the job market and the cost of living in Spain is still relatively low. In fact outside of the political deadlock the country is doing quite well. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they kept squabbling and let the country run itself.

Will Things Be Different Now? The Spanish Have Voted, But There’s Still a Deadlock

Will Things Be Different Now? The Spanish Have Voted, But There’s Still a Deadlock

Spanish acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy once more got the most votes in the general election but, once again, his People’s Party failed to get that much needed majority government.

Mariano Rajoy definitely looked triumphant, and it’s not hard to see why. His party once again won the most votes in the general election. It would appear to be a good sign that the country has a lot of faith in his ability to run the country but, as things always are in Spanish politics, things are never how they appear.

While the country did manage to win the most votes once again, winning 137 seats and 33% of the votes, this still wasn’t enough to secure them an overall majority. So once again the country is in almost the exact same situation they were after the general election of December.

If there is to be a proper government in Spain then a coalition needs to be put together. If Rajoy wants to stay Prime Minister then he needs to get the support of other parties in order to put together a majority government. This might not be too likely given that his party leans to the right while his main rivals, the Socialist PSOE (who won 85 seats and 23% of the votes), Podemos (71 seats and 21%) and Ciudadanos (32 seats, 13%) are all leaning to the left.

What this means is that the PP would likely need to get support from the smaller parties. These parties only have 25 seats between them though. Even if he got the support of all of them it would not be enough to put a majority government together.

Rajoy is optimistic though. He said that he believes they will be able to come to an agreement within a month and that there was no point in continuing to drag things out for longer.

The PP received some surprising support from within the Socialist PSOE party. The Extremadura leader Guillermo Fernández Vara believes that Rajoy should be back in government as soon as possible. The PP at least managed to secure more votes than they earned in December with 15 more seats than that general election. Vara believes that this shows the voters back Rajoy and now it’s what they need to do too.

The secretary of PSOE César Luena has other ideas however. He says that their party doesn’t plan to support the PP because of his taxation policies in Spain; saying instead that they plan to replace Rajoy. So this political circus is set to carry on for a while yet. Podemos, who were expected to earn more votes this time, actually lost around a million votes. One suggestion political commentators have made is that the Brexit has put people off voting for the radical parties with more people voting for the status quo.

In the end though the extra PP votes are not enough to let them assume control of the country. Even though the party was in charge as the economy began to recover many people in Spain are still eager to see change happen. It may be that Podemos are trying to change too much however and the change the Socialists are offering is less dramatic than that of Podemos.

It’s not hard to understand why all of this has become so confusing. For now though it’s hoped that the political parties will be able to put aside their differences and come together to do what is right for the people of Spain by keeping the economy moving and the cost of living in spain down , but only time will tell.