Spain: facing the danger of new elections | Frac …

From Madrid

Spain is getting closer to the abyss of new general elections. The fourth in four years and the fourth in 2019, after the regional and municipal elections, those of the European Parliament and those that took place on April 28 and gave the winner to the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

The possibility of a new election opens after the meeting between the current President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of Unidas Podemos (UP), Pablo Iglesias, did not attempt to unblock negotiations wrecked for some time. a few weeks

The two left-wing leaders should try to untie the formed knot since the option of a coalition government was put on the table, following the impossibility for the PSOE to form a single government for do not have a majority of deputies at the Spanish Congress. Given this panorama, Sánchez and Iglesias negotiated in public, in secret and through the media without reaching an agreement.

In the environment of Sanchez, opt for a government of "cooperation", in which UP is the privileged force of the PSOE to work in a governmental program. An agreement that excludes the possibility that Pablo Iglesias, or another leader of the UP, holds positions in the Council of Ministers. For its part, the formula of the leader of the purple formation is to form a coalition government in which the spaces within the executive are distributed according to the number of deputies obtained by each force on April 28th. The PSOE 123 and the UP 42. A total of 165 parliamentarians who even need the support of another force to add the 176 that require an absolute majority.

This difference in the terms of the agreement has been extended with the pbadage of days and this Tuesday has reached its peak. At the end of the meeting between the two left-wing leaders, PSOE Deputy Secretary and Spokeswoman Adriana Lastra said the meeting had been "unsuccessful" and that it seemed "Iglesias was more concerned about the names of the Security Council. " Ministers that the policies to be developed. "A dart that the Socialist Party wants to justify with the publication Monday of a possible government program to be agreed with the UP, and the invitation made to the Violet Force to propose prestigious independent personalities to join the Council of Ministers.

According to party sources quoted by eldiario.es, the summit of the UP meeting is that Pedro Sánchez will trigger new elections if on July 23 he can not be vested in the presidency of the government. In public, the churches' declaration was more moderate. He said that Spain needed a "coalition government of the left" and that he hoped to "convince the PSOE to soften its position," to open it up to an integral position of the government. In addition, he pointed out that the idea of ​​the PSOE to form a monochrome executive was "in the opposite direction to what citizenship has voted".

One of the options proposed by UP is to vote against the first ballot on July 23 and the second on the 25th of the same month, and to hope that in September Sanchez will be able to choose to submit his nomination to the vote. Once again, the Congress did so with a prior agreement including a coalition government with the presence of UP leaders in the executive. In this way, it would avoid going to a new election; What Iglesias thinks is that the Socialist leader will not end up doing because he would be "irresponsible".

However, the PSOE does not rule out the possibility of new elections and even some media claim that they are already preparing. Last week, the sociological research center, the state pollster, released a report stating a possible new election, in which the PSOE would again be the most voted party and increase its advantage over the rest of the competition; UP, meanwhile, would lose about seven MPs, while in a good way, the PP would improve its position at the expense of Cs and Vox's far right. A scenario that, anyway, would leave Sánchez at the same crossroads of not having the majority, but as the badyst Enric Juliana pointed out a few days ago in the newspaper L & # 39; vanguard, would bring back the well-known predominance of bipartisanship, which rebadures the establishment.

The date of the new elections would be November 10. A year-end horizon without the pressures of European elections and regional and municipal elections, but with the ghost of abstention flirting with a tired society to go into the dark room. In this sense, the one who is a bit fed up with the political uncertainty of the Iberian country is the European Union. This weekend, The country He published an article in which he gathered the discomfort felt by the Brussels authorities of the Spanish shipwreck. With the far right agitated in Italy and France, European bloc leaders have expressed the hope that Spain would show a clear commitment to democracy and the values ​​of the Union. . The possibility of new elections, is also the possibility that the right adds a majority with Vox, and managed to reach the Moncloa.

Between Brussels fatigue, the risk of a right push and UP pressure, Pedro Sánchez starts a countdown of two weeks before attempting his first attempt at forming a government and put an end to so much confusion.