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paro empleo

Spanish Politics 30th May 2021

The OECD Makes A Full Amendment To The Approaches Of The Spanish Ministry Of Labour

The Secretary General of the OECD, Ángel Gurría, yesterday presented the “Economic Survey of Spain 2021” together with the Vice-President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño. The document is an amendment to the labour policy proposed by the Spanish government in its entirety. It warns of the high impact of the coronavirus crisis on the Spanish economy and rejects a tax hike until the economic recovery is consolidated. It also asks…

Spanish PSOE

Spanish Politics 28th May 2021

Revolt In The PSOE Over The Pardons Sánchez Wants To Grant The Catalan Independence Supporters To Secure His Government

Within the PSOE itself, critical voices are growing against the pardons that the government intends to grant to the Catalan coup plotters to ensure its continuity. The president of the Junta de Extremadura, the socialist Guillermo Fernández Vara, explained on Wednesday that “it is clear” that “those who do not want to be pardoned should not be pardoned, since they do not respect or believe in the laws that make…

Catalonia referendum

Spanish Politics 27th May 2021

The Supreme Court Rejects The Pardon For The 12 Catalan Coup Perpetrators And Says “It is an Unacceptable Solution”

The fact that Pedro Sánchez needs the support of ERC (the party of many of the Catalan politicians imprisoned for sedition) to stay in government, prevents the Prime Minister’s argument from being heeded: “Revenge is not a constitutional value,” he says. The 12 imprisoned pro-independence politicians have refused to request a pardon and have publicly reiterated they would be willing to call an illegal referendum like the one on October,…

Calviño

Spanish Politics 20th May 2021

Nadia And Yolanda, At The Boss’ Right And Left Hand

Fernando González Urbaneja | The second (Nadia Calviño) and third (Yolanda Díaz) vice-presidents of the Spanish government have a hard time putting up with each other; they hide it, but sometimes they betray each other. A gesture, a comment, a confidence… and the dissimulation vanishes. It happened yesterday in Parliament, over the “reversal of the labour reform” but it is well known to the usual interlocutors of the two vice-presidents….

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.