Another Election on the Horizon for Spain
Photograph of Spanish Prime-Minister Pedro Sánchez. Photo courtesy of France Médias Monde.
Interim Spanish Prime-Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced that early elections will take place on 10 November, having failed to secure a majority in the Congress of Deputies (the lower house of the Spanish legislature).
Last April, the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) (a Social Democratic Party led by Mr Sánchez) declared a resounding victory in early elections. However, the party failed to achieve a majority. The April elections were triggered after Mr Sánchez lost a vote-of-no-confidence, after losing the support of his Catalan and left-wing allies, as reported by Deutsche Welle.
Mr Sánchez's April victory was a deafening defeat for the Spanish People's Party (PP), a Conservative party who sought to wrest back control of the government from the Socialists.
Mr Sánchez originally became Prime-Minister under a minority government that was formed after the previous Prime-Minister Mariano Rajoy (a member of the Spanish People's Party) was removed in a vote-of-confidence.
Mr Sánchez attempted to form a coalition with the Left-wing and anti-establishment Unidas Podemos Party. However, those negotiations fell apart over conflicting priorities of the two parties, as well as Mr Sánchez's refusal to grant any Podemos leaders positions in the upper cabinet. Coalition talks with the Centre-right Ciudadanos Party also fell apart 'at the last minute', according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Despite his relative popularity and a large number of seats in the Congress of Deputies, Mr Sánchez is now forced to hold the fourth election in the last four years, with the hope of achieving a working majority. Polls suggest the the both the PSOE and PP will gain seats (at the expense of smaller parties), but that PSOE will remain the lastgest party, as repoerted by The Economist.
Mr Sánchez will still try to form a coalition government before the 10 November deadline. However, if he cannot, elections will take place. Until such a time as a majority or coalition government takes office, Mr Sánchez will lead the caretaker government, according to the Financial Times.
Mr Sánchez has been seen, by many, as the leader for Socialism and Social Democracy in Europe. Let us see if he can hold onto that title and his premiership.
Sources:
"Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez loses parliament approval vote." DW, Deutsche Welle, 23 July 2019
https://www.dw.com/en/spanish-pm-pedro-sanchez-loses-parliament-approval-vote/a-49716643
Torres, Diego, "Spain's Rajoy ousted in no-confidence vote." Politico, Capitol News Company, 1 June 2019,
https://www.politico.eu/article/spains-rajoy-ousted-in-no-confidence-vote/
"Spain to hold fourth election in four years." BBC, British Broadcasting Corportation, 17 Sept. 2019,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49736118
"Back to the ballot box: Spain's election." The Economist Espresso, The Economist Group, 19 Sept. 2019,
https://espresso.economist.com/69eb1fa7a8b30d8e7bcfc61f5c9c7d96
Dombey, Daniel "Spain faces fourth election in 4 years after talks fail." FT, Financial Times, 10 Sept. 2019,
https://www.ft.com/content/91a5d8bc-d3dd-11e9-a0bd-ab8ec6435630
Gualtieri, Thomas and Orihuela, Rodrigo, "Spanish King Asks Whether It's Election Time for Sanchez." Bloomberg, Bloomberg L.P., 15 Sept. 2019,