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catalonia efimera

Spanish Politics 19th May 2021

Separatist Parties Agree To Form New Government In Catalonia

Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | Catalonia’s leading pro-independence parties have reached an agreement to install Pere Aragonès as regional president. Aragonés has been acting president since September, when Quim Torra of the center-right Together for Catalonia (Junts) was forced to step down. Aragonès’ Republican Left won the election in February. The agreement comes after three months of negotiations during which the Republicans raised the possibility of forming a minority government…

Pedro mascarilla españita

Spanish Politics 18th May 2021

Sánchez, Between Polls And Pardons

Fernando González Urbaneja | The spring promised to be a prosperous one for the socialists after the relative triumph in the Catalan elections, which held out the possibility of a tripartite government (on the left); the ousting of the Partido Popular in some autonomous communities in collusion with Ciudadanos, which, by the way, distanced itself from the PP; the vaccination campaign that would put an end to the pandemic; and…

Arrimadas

Spanish Politics 17th May 2021

Ciudadanos’ Dilemma: To Be Or Not To Be

Fernando González Urbaneja | If it is not easy to give birth to a party, burying it with dignity can be just as complicated… or more so. Ciudadanos was an exciting political project born in Barcelona as a reaction to (unconfessed pro-independence) nationalism and the connivance of the constitutionalist parties, PSC and PP. Ciudadanos was the other, cleaner way (without history). It was accepted in Catalonia and exported the model…

pedro alertado

Spanish Politics 6th May 2021

Why Sánchez’s PSOE Is Collapsing In Madrid

T.C. | Why has Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE been swept aside in the Madrid elections on May 4th? Because, very much in his usual style, he waited until the 5th to announce to all Spaniards the content of the Recovery Plan sent to Brussels the previous week, with tax hikes on all fronts. So Spain has a government in which everything is about electoral calculation, deceit and contradiction. Something that, at…

Isabel Díaz Ayuso

Spanish Politics 5th May 2021

Madrid, Fed Up With “The Left”

T.C. | Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the PP president of the Community of Madrid, swept to victory in the elections to the Madrid Assembly and will be able to govern alone. With her 65 deputies (the absolute majority is 69), she will only need the abstention of Vox (13 deputies), the party to her right, to form a government. With a historic turnout of 76%, the highest in the history of…

Bipartisanship

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 18th February 2021

The Resistance Of The Imperfect Bipartisanship In Spain

Between 2014 (European elections) and the last general elections (December 2019) there have been six elections in which the sum of the bipartisanship oscillated between 45 and 55%. With an electoral support of around 30% of the votes (for the most voted party) and around 50% of the sum of the two parties (compared to more than 70% during the previous forty years) both parties continue to be essential to govern. Both still have a social and electoral base to survive despite their evident management errors.

paro empleo

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 15th February 2021

Employment In Spain Holds Up This time, But Duality In The Labour Market Continues To Wreak Havoc

Josep Mestres Domènech (CaixaBank Research)| In times of crisis, the reduction in employment traditionally occurred in Spain through a significant destruction of jobs, while in periods of expansion job creation was rapid. This has not been the case in this crisis. For the first time, the declines in GDP have been accompanied by a much smaller reduction in employment. This is not only due to the unique nature of this crisis, which originated in the health sphere, but also due to a very different response from economic policy.

Casa Real 1

Spanish Politics 4th August 2020

Spain’s Former King Juan Carlos Leaves Spain: Alleged Corruption Overshadows His Reign And Threatens His Son Felipe’s

The King Emeritus of Spain—Juan Carlos I— is leaving the country to live in another, unspecified, country amid a financial scandal. Juan Carlos has communicated his decision to his son Felipe VI through a letter that was made official by the Royal House. In spite of Juan Carlos I ‘s alleged financial irregularities, all the Spanish media have acknowledge the historic importance of the 82-year-old former king.

The agreement on the minimum wage and the relative success of the trip to Catalonia encourages the new government

Spanish Politics 13th April 2020

You Have To Sleep…

A.J.A. | President Sánchez has no achievements to show, and by embracing Iglesias and his Bolivarians he has moved to the European extreme left. To try to forge consensus and pacts from there, from political positions that have shown time and time again where they lead (Cuba, Venezuela, the USSR… with economies razed to the ground and people in extreme poverty while their leaders live in dachas), does not seem reasonable. 
Here, Iglesias and his wife, the Minister for Equality, have already got their dacha. And Spain, without a doubt, is going to be devastated… But, on top of that, do we now have to get behind the Government and push? Better try to sleep. It’s not easy to dream a worse nightmare.

Pedro Sánchez falls short of majority but will likely prevail tuesday

Spanish Politics 3rd March 2020

Madrid Closer to Striking a Budget Deal

J.P. Marín Arrese | Budgets stand as the paramount evidence for any government that it commands enough legislative backing. Especially when the governments in question cling to a fragile minority in order to stay in power. The Spanish Cabinet ranks high in this category, its survival is balancing on the thin rope the pro-independence ERC party is ready to offer. The price of this offer is engaging an open-ended dialogue on self-rule for Catalonia, plus an amnesty for the sentenced leaders of the derailed coup attempt. Both sides acknowledge that negotiations will lead nowhere. None the less, this offers political ammunition to ERC for quelling resistance at home in providing a life-jacket to PM Sánchez.