Spanish Parliamentary Instability

This report is about the Parliamentary Instability in Spain; a problem that Spaniards have been facing for a while and no one seems to have the solution for. All the data collected is from national newspapers and media outlets.

After almost two years of tremendous parliamentary instability, the Spanish Parliament has recently elected Pedro Sánchez, from the center-leftist party PSOE, as President of the Government. Sánchez along with Pablo Iglesias from the leftist party, Unidas Podemos, will now lead the first coalition government in Spain in almost 90 years.  However, the formation of this coalition government has only generated conflict among the country.

Even though, Sánchez won the general elections in November, he failed to get enough seats to govern and started negotiating with other parties to make a coalition government. In September 2019, he had said he would never agree with Unidas Podemos because neither him nor 95% of Spaniards “would sleep at night” with such a government. Failing to his word, reached an agreement with Unidas Podemos and now its leader, Pablo Iglesias, is Vice-President of Spain. In addition, he had stressed that he could not stand siting at a table of the Council of Ministers with politicians who defended the self-determination of Catalonia. Nevertheless, in order to obtain the support of the independent party of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), the PSOE secretly negotiated an agreement for almost two months, committing to address “the Catalan conflict”. Earlier he had also assured that he would not try to reach agreements with former ETA members, but yet had several meetings with politicians from EH Bildu, the political showcase of the missing terrorist band ETA.

After several months of negations, a second vote was held and Sánchez was finally elected President of the Government. 167 members of Parliament voted in favor, 165 voted no and there were 18 abstentions from EH Bildu and ERC. Among those who voted against Sanchez are the congressmen of PP, Citizens and Vox, as well as the other two formations that seek independence from Catalonia: the CUP and Junts per Catalunya.

Due to his conduct, Sánchez was highly criticized by members of the Parliament, specially the opposition. Pablo Casado, president of the center-right party PP, accused Sánchez of “putting the future of Spain in the hands of the two great enemies of Spain: the coup plotters and the independentists” because he only thinks of continuing in power. Moreover, Santiago Abascal, president of the right party Vox, reiterated that Sánchez “had lied to the Spaniards” for making false promises to the citizens. Also, Inés Arrimadas, from the center-right party Ciudadanos said: “Sánchez starts with a big lie and irresponsibility”. However, not only the opposition but also a part of his own party accused him of pursuing power at all costs and renouncing the master lines that have defined the PSOE as a: social-democratic formation, defender of the Constitution, of the unity of the State and of Spain arising from the post-Franco transition.

Even though Sánchez has avoided a third election, no one is going to grant him the so-called 100 days of trust. He must face the approval of new budgets without delay and stick to the promise made to Unidas Podemos of increasing the national spendings. But economic policy so far is being obscured by the problem of secessionism of Spain, since the country is divided in three: right, left and those who do not want to be in Spain. Moreover, Sánchez begins his term with the threat and constant vigilance of his partners of Unidas Podemos; the hard opposition from the right parties (Popular Party, Vox and Citizens); and, of course, the support and blackmail of the Catalan and Basque independents. Sánchez cannot be questioned for his legitimacy to become prime minister, but what his last electoral campaigns have shown is that the word of politicians has lost even more credibility than they had among the citizens of Spain.

The fundamental question for Spaniards is not how this government begins, but how it ends. In 2004, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, from the PSOE party, was elected as the Prime Minister of Spain. He inherited a growing economy, great public accounts and a country turning into an economic power. Seven years later, he left Spain broken and with the highest record of unemployment within the history of Spain. Nevertheless, the worst of all was that Spain was divided in two; and, here we are again. As Winston Churchill said: politics is not a game, but a serious business. Perhaps, Spanish politicians should start taking this into account and start making serious politics in behalf of the citizens.