Finally, Spain has a new prime minister. He happens to be the old one. Today, Januar 7, 2019 the Spanish Congress of Deputies finally managed to reelect Pedro Sánchez as Spain’s new prime minister.
On Sunday, January 5, he had failed to win a then needed absolute majority of the 350-member lower house of parliament. 166 parliamentarians voted against him and 165 for him, 18 abstained and 1 was absent because he was ill. Today, in the second attempt, the simple majority of the Congress of Deputies were enough to be elected. And he just managed to do this: Sánchez secured the support of 167 MPs for his minority government. 165 voted against him. Catalan and Basque MPs abstained from voting and, therefore, helped the new PM secure the needed simple majority. 18 MPs abstained from voting.
In February 2019, he had called early elections because parliament had rejected his minority government’s 2019 budget plan. But this was not the end of the story. The April elections did not lead to a new majority. In November 2019, Spain voted again. The Socialist interim Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez come in first with his PSOE. But he only managed to win 28% of the vote and 123 seats (-3) in the decisive 350-seat Congress of Deputies (the lower house of parliament). Second came the conservative People’s Party (PP) of the young Pablo Casado (*1981) with 20.8% and 89 seats (+23). A huge blow for democracy is the third place for the extreme right-wing Vox with 15.1% and 52 seats (+28!). The party’s populist leader Santiago Abascal was a PP member until 2013 (*1976); his father and grandfather were both PP politicians. In short, Vox is partly flesh of the PP.
The fourth largest party in the Spanish Congress of Deputies is the far-left Podemos of Pablo Iglesias (*1978), a man who, in the not so recent past, has praised the likes of Chávez and Maduro in Venezuela. Podemos finished with 12.86% and 35 seats (-7). They have now become the ally of Pedro Sánchez and his PSOE in what is Spain’s first coalition government in the Democratic era after Franco’s death in 1978.
The fifth largest political force in Spain is the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). With only 3.63% of the vote in overall Spain (-0,28%) they managed to win 13 seats because they are only present in Catalonia. Together with Basque nationalists, they are a key ally of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, although they are not part of his minority government. Together with the 5 left-wing, nationalist Basque Bildu party MPs, the 13 ERC MPs abstained from voting and, therefore, secured the new PMs simple majority.
The sixht largest party in Spain is the economically liberal Ciudadanos (Citizens). A few years ago, one could have great hopes in the ability of this party to renew the Spanish political right. Its former leader Albert Rivera (*1979) seemed smart, intelligent and ambitious. However, altough born in Barcelona, he was a harsh critic of the separatists in Catalonia with some good arguments, but a harsh, uncompromising approach which strengthened the separatists who, in a vote before the escalation of the situation in Catalonia would most likely not have won more than 40% of support in an independence referendum. Later, together with the conservative PP, Albert Rivera was in favor of regional and municipal alliances with the extreme-right party Vox. In the November 2019 election. Ciudadanos suffered a severe setback. They only won 6.8% (-9.06%!) and 10 seats (-47!). After the disaster. Albert Rivera rightly stepped down as party leader.
The good thing is that Spain finally has a government. It is also good that Pedro Sánchez seems ready to look for a compromise with the Catalans. In that region, a political solution is needed. However, the reelected PM in Spain is only the leader of a minority government. Spain has huge economic problems, including a very high unemployment rate, and needs stability. A higher minimum wage, higher income taxes and a partial reversal of the labor market reforms passed by the previous PP government will not save Spain’s problems. Unfortunately, that’s the economic plan of the PSOE and Podemos minority government.
Spain needs a better educational system, to be open for business, to attract foreign investments as well as to favor a culture of political compromise (between the left and the right) and inclusion (regarding the Basques and Catalans).
Read also our former articles about the incompetence of the Spanish political leaders and the situation in February 2019.
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Prime minister Pedro Sánchez in 2018 . This official photo was published by the Ministry of the Presidency of the Government of Spain, for instance on the website of La Moncloa. / used by Wikipedia.
Article published on January 7, 2020 at 21:27 German time. Added on January 8, 2020 at 00:04: 18 abstentions in the January 7 vote added.
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