Fernando González Urbaneja | There are few doubts about the quality of democracy, which can clearly be improved and which is moving backwards like a crab. It is not irrelevant that in The Economist’s ranking of democracies, Spain’s is slipping backwards and dropping down the rankings. The reasons for this backwardness are to be found in the open crisis in the government of judges, which puts their independence at risk;…
J.P. Marín-Arrese | The centre-right party leader, Mr Casado, has been at odds for months with the president of the Madrid region, Ms Díaz Ayuso. He has not provided any convincing reasons for refusing her bid to head the PP in the Madrid region. Now, we know he feared a corruption scandal might spark off as the regional government, which she heads, granted a public procurement to a family friend…
The latent tension in the Partido Popular (PP) in recent months between the party’s national leadership and the president of the Community of Madrid exploded out of control yesterday. On Wednesday night two national media – El Mundo and El Confidencial – published that the party had spied on Ayuso. The alleged spying was allegedly intended to produce a dossier with evidence of the alleged corruption that has been touching…
Fernando González Urbaneja | It is a speculative but interesting question to take the political temperature of these liquid times. The Sánchez method in the face of government alliances is none other than to do what the mathematics indicate… apart from a German-style grand coalition. Sánchez made a pact with Unidos Podemos, with the addition of ERC, Bildu and others, contrary to all his repeated and emphatic statements of the…
Shaun Riordan | Unless the polls are dramatically wrong, Pedro Sanchez´ socialist party (PSOE) will be by far the largest party after the Spanish general election on 28 April. Given that, there are three key questions for foreign observers: will the right wing bloc of the Partido Popular (PP), Ciudadanos and Vox secure an absolute majority of seats in the parliament? Will the combined vote of PSOE, the left wing Podemos and the Basque nationalists be sufficient to form a government without the support, active or passive, of the Catalan nationalists? How well will the far-right Vox do?
Joan Tapia (Barcelona) | As I write this article, three polls have been published – in three Spanish newspapers ABC, El Periodico de Catalunya and Confidencial – which practically agree. If there are no changes in the twenty days that remain before the elections, PSOE will be the largest party with more than 130 seats, far distant from the PP which will remain on 80-90 seats.
Fernando G. Urbaneja | An unprecedented tornado of elections has fallen on Spain in 2019. In the short space of four weeks Spaniards can place their papers with their electoral preferences in at least 5 urns, to elect the Congress, Senate, European Parliament, Townhalls and a good part of the regional parliaments. Spring superelections which will overturn a good part of the structure of the state.
Whatever you think of Mariano Rajoy, you can’t deny his ability to dig in. When in opposition, as leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), he survived two general election losses, as well as thwarting mutinies within his own ranks; as prime minister since 2011 he has ridden through economic near-meltdown, the threat of new parties Podemos and Ciudadanos and a torrent of corruption scandals.
Spaniards will go out and vote again on June 26, six months after the ordinary elections which took place when Rajoy’s government ended its mandate, having enjoyed a four-year majority. The result of the December 20 polls was an impossible political chessboard, with no group capable of forming a government.
Ten million Spaniards watched the most important debate between candidates from the four parties which could form a Government in Spain on Monday night. And yet the participants did not clarify the most important point: Will there be a Government after the elections on June 26?