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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Joan Tapia (Barcelona) | The PSOE-Podemos Coalition Government has not failed to confront its two main challenges: economic policy and Catalonia. However, now comes the most important issue: to approve the national budget for 2020 for which it needs a vote in favour of ERC. This time the abstention of ERC is not enough, as in the case of the investiture, which was achieved in exchange for the establishment of a dialogue between the governments of Madrid and Barcelona.
According to Spanish press (Periodista Digital, etc.) Beatriz Becerra, vice-chair of the European parliament’s human rights sub-committee and a member of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE Group), has published an open letter against the former Spanish President, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, of the Socialist Party (PSOE) after reading the message Zapatero sent privately to Juan Guaidó and other leaders of the Venezuelan opposition.
