Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Socialists, Podemos Agree to Spanish Coalition
The fourth election in Spain in as many years delivered a hung Cortes, and it initially appeared to be as indecisive as the last one. This time around, the Socialists and the anti-austerity Podemos party found enough common ground to make a coalition deal. That puts them within striking distance of a majority. With some help from smaller parties, the Catalan nationalists and/or abstentions on the right, the partners may be able to begin governing.
The outcome of the last election showed the Socialists with 120 seats, which was down 3. The conservative People's Party won 88, which was up 22. The far-right Vox won 52 seats, up 28 for the Franco fans. Podemos had 35, which was a decline of 7. A majority is 176 of the 350 seats, so the coalition partners need to find 21 votes somewhere.
The biggest development was the collapse of the Ciudadanos (Citizens) Party. Seven months ago, the party secured 57 seats. In Sunday's election, it could only hold 10 of those. The 47 seats Ciudadanos lost and the 50 seats picked up by the PP and Vox almost perfectly cancel out. The realignment of the Spanish right continues, and Ciudadanos seems to be a passing fad.
The surge from Ciudadanos to Vox is unwelcome. Vox is Francoism in the 21st century. Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, stated, "We have led a cultural and political change, because we have opened up all the forbidden debates and told the left that the story isn't over yet and that they don't have any moral superiority," he said. His party wants a "reconquest" of Spain. "Reconquista" is the term used for the Christian takeover of Muslim Spain completed in 1492 under Ferdinand and Isabella. The reference is clearly anti-Muslim, and the desire to build an "unbreachable wall" around the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla underscores the mindset.
The response of Europe's other new generation fascists has been predictable. The BBC reported, "France's far-right party leader Marine Le Pen took to Twitter to congratulate Vox's 'staggering progress'.Italian populist Matteo Salvini also spoke of his pleasure at seeing Vox's success. 'Not at all racism and fascism, in Italy as in Spain we just want to live peacefully in our own home,' he tweeted." One hesitates to call Mr. Salvini a liar but only briefly.
The Catalan independence movement remains the biggest issue that the government will have to address. Given the minority status of the government, the votes from the Catalan nationalists will matter. The price they will extract for that support is unclear as yet.
The right is more than happy about this. If they can't govern, they are quite happy to tar the left with the charge that the future of a united Spain is at risk with this government.
One sympathizes with Juan Luis Castro, 73, a retired aviation mechanic from north-east Madrid, whom the Guardian interviewed for a man-in-the-street perspective. "It's such a big mess and things are even worse now than they were before. But it's really hard to know what's going to happen next. What we need now is a government, not more deadlock or another election."
This journal believes Mr. Castro will be back at the polls again before 2021 is over.
© Copyright 2019 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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