Spain Finally Has a New Government

Spain Finally Has a New Government

This past Sunday the Socialist Party of Spain (PSOE) finally agreed to step aside and let stand-in

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party (PP) go back to running the country after a ten month long political impasse.

Spain has continued to do well without a government

While the decision the PSOE made to stand aside and accede defeat wasn’t popular with the left-leaning Spaniards the political deadlock finally ending can only be good for the country. Rajoy is expected to take the helm of the country some time next month. He will be much less powerful this time around however.

Rajoy failed to secure a majority number of seats in the election from last December and the June election of this year; meaning that the PP will only control 137 seats out of the 350 seats available in Spanish parliament.

As such Rajoy will need to negotiate most of his political decisions with the other people in parliament with him. Watering down Rajoy’s power was one of the few positive things that the PSOE took from their move; arguing that it would be better to end the deadlock and stop the PP in parliament when needed than keep the impasse going for a third election.

Rajoy is expected to meet with King Felipe before two additional rounds of Congress voting will see the Popular Party reinstated as the Spanish governing party by the end of next week.

It’s somewhat of a “tradition” in Spain that the Popular Party and the PSOE trade power as the country swings from left to right. The recent recessions and cost of living of the country saw the emergence of two additional smaller parties that messed up this delicate balance. They were the Podemos party of the far left and the centrist Cíudadanos party. Both of these parties took some votes from both of the major parties but the PSOE in particular were badly hit.

There’s no doubt that the new leader of the PSOE Javier Fernandez must have had trouble choosing to stand aside. Even so he said that his decision was the lesser of two evils and the Spanish public are in agreement, along with the press and economists who are happy to finally see the political disputes of the past year come to an end.

The PSOE saw that 139 regional voters agreed to their decision to lift their veto to allow the PP to form a government while 96 were against it. This shows that there is still a pretty big divide in the party and that Rajoy will not find it so easy to run the country during his second term at the helm.

Fernando Vallespin; politics professor with the Autonomous University of Madrid said that it is unprecedented for a Spanish government to have such a small amount of parliamentary support. He added that Rajoy will most likely need to negotiate any laws he tries to introduce.

With the new government finally being formed Spain will continue to be a better place to live.

Electoral Registrations on the Rise as Brits Finally Get The Message

Electoral Registrations on the Rise as Brits Finally Get The Message

The number of Brits abroad that are registered to vote has risen a massive 80,000 in the past two months in the lead-up to the EU referendum.

The biggest vote in UK for generations

There are two things said a lot about Brits that live abroad and both of them seem to be accurate. The first is that they never learn the Spanish language. The other is that they never show any interest in voting in a UK election.

Recent figures from the Electoral Commission has shown that Brits abroad are finally getting the message about making their voices heard in British matters though.

During the general election last year only 106,000 Brits in over 5.5 million living overseas were registered to vote. This was used to bash British expats with many considering them traitors who no longer care about Britain and have long since turned their back on their home country.

An awareness campaign was launched in March and it seems to have achieved some success. The Electoral Commission shows that 80,000 Brits have registered to vote and will be taking part in the EU Referendum.

While it is true that the figure is still a disturbingly low 186,000 the Electoral Commission decided to take a look at why there was so much apathy expressed by expats. They discovered that 20% of the people they asked were under the false impression that they would be ineligible to vote. It seems expats literally don’t realise they can vote.

The poll also discovered that 30% of British voters living in the cities around spain were not sure about their right to vote. This suggests that all of the campaigns for Brits to vote in the EU Referendum and get involved have failed. Roughly 22% of the Brits living abroad can be found in the EU. Most of them are in Spain. These are the people who are going to be affected the most if Britain leaves the EU.

Last month the challenge taken to the British High Court by two expats to have the 15-year voting rule thrown out was denied by the judges. This means that the only Brits abroad that can vote are those who have been registered in a UK constituency in the past 15 years. As long as they are registered to vote that is.

Brits abroad only ha until May 16^th to register to vote; If they miss out then they miss their chance to vote and have their voice heard in the election. If they do miss this chance they can also choose someone to vote on their behalf. The deadline to register a proxy is June 7^th.

The director of communications with the Electoral Commission, Alex Robertson, believes that many expats will want to have their voices heard so he is determined to give them the chance to do so. He knows how significant the EU Referendum is and wants to get everyone who can vote out there voting.

If someone registers to vote by May 16^th they could vote using a postal service vote. Postal votes are sent out early so that they can arrive in time to be counted in the UK. If people don’t believe they can cast a postal vote in time or they missed out on the 16^th May deadline it is possible to register a proxy to vote on their behalf.