Parliamentary Elections in Spain: The Socialists Came back into Power and Now for a Long Time

Abstract

The author analyses the results of the parliamentary elections in Spain, the winner of which was the Spanish socialist workers party (PSOE), and the subsequent long period of search for allies to create a left-wing government. The 123 seats it won in the Congress of deputies – the lower house of Parliament - were not enough to win a vote in it alone (176 votes are needed) and to bring her leader Pedro Sánchez to power. The natural ally was the Podemos party (41 deputies), of which there is little left in the last year or two. But even with successful negotiations with its ambitious leader Pablo Iglesias, this would not be enough. P. Sanchez categorically rejected the very possibility of a bloc with the party of Sudadanos («Citizens»), which subjected him during the election campaign to vehement accusations of pre-giving national interests and pandering to the Catalan separatists. At the same time, he avoided the option of negotiations with the same left-wing Republicans of Catalonia, active supporters of the independence of the region, so as not to be bound by any promises for the future. Solitaire remained open to Basque nationalists and small regional Deputy groups, although in this case, not everything was clear. The result is known: the leader of the socialists was the crucible of Parliament. The author gives a forecast of the situation in Spain after the most unpredictable early parliamentary elections, which largely changed the political landscape of the country.

Keywords

• snap elections
• vox ultra-radicals
• parliamentary vote
• new political leaders
• social-economic decrees
• fight for the center-right
• crisis in «podemos»
• prospects of left-wing parties