A month before the European elections, the Spaniards determine a new Parliament on Sunday. The socialists are ahead, but if it is enough to form a government, is uncertain. Bernd Riegert reports.
Casado, Iglesias, Rivera, Sanchez: Four young men in the TV debate
Four men fought in the second televised debate of the Spanish election in this week’s fierce personal attacks on women – and gender policy. The men, all of whom are presidents of their parties, in different shades against violence against women, equal pay and more equal opportunities. None of the parties has to present a woman as a top candidate, the electoral outcome depends, perhaps, decisive of the votes of the Spanish. 60 percent, so a number of researchers were also the days before the vote, which takes place this Sunday, still undecided. In the television debate, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of the socialists, Pablo Casado of the conservative people’s party, Pablo Iglesias of the left “Unidas Podemos” and the liberal Albert Rivera sought by the “Ciudadanos”, their messages to accommodate. Also striking is the relatively young age of the candidates. With 47 years of socialist Prime Minister Sanchez is already the Methuselah in the round. The other gentlemen are between 38 and 40 years old. It’s going to be a completely new Generation to the Power in Spain.
“Nation” as an Election issue
In the case of none TV debate, the head of the right-wing populist party, “Vox”, Santiago Abascal Conde, is also only 43 years old. His party, a breakaway from the conservative people’s party, is not previously represented in the national Parliament and has not been charged, therefore, to the TV-duel. Abascal held parallel to the TV round in Seville a rally and complained about the “dictatorship of the liberal media” and the “Progressive” in politics. He promised his jubilant supporters for a “reconquest”, a return to the Spanish Nation and for an end to the immigration. Also “exaggerated women’s rights” or an exuberant gay culture in Spain, the candidate of the right-wing populists, called the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a role model rejects. The separatists in Catalonia would have to hard to be touched, calls Santiago Abascal. He calls for a strong centrally-ruled “Spanish Fatherland”, in which one could sleep well again. Regional parliaments, he wants to abolish.
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Right-wing populists play a key role in the election in Spain
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Right-wing populists play a key role in the election in Spain
Catalonia splits Spain
Especially the conflict between the aspirations for independence in the North-Eastern province of Catalonia has given to the right of the “Vox”. According to surveys they could achieve on Sunday eleven percent. Spain, a wave of nationalism is sweeping across, believes the political scientist Jose Ignacio Torreblanca from the “European Council on Foreign Affairs”, a think tank in Madrid. “Behind the Pride and emotion, more than rational Considerations put. Because practically, the policy proposed by the Vox has no sense. It is a hodgepodge, but the voters care little. If you go to Vox, they follow feelings.”
The crisis in and around Catalonia since the independence referendum in 2017 and the following Central administration by Madrid, a deep division between the left and right bearings, but both can expect a majority, if the polls votes. “The socialists have pursued a more lenient policy for Catalonia. The Conservative promotion of a hard attitude,” says political scientist Jose Ignacio Torreblanca. “The choice is therefore whether to strengthen the government in Catalonia, to the voters for a spin-off, recover. Or is it to strengthen Central control and to punish the separatists in Catalonia that they have held an illegal Referendum.”
Dispose of it? Or choose again? Prime Sanchez advertises on the dumpster with, “do it!”
The left and right block
The Catalonia question will decide according to the choice of researchers, the choice, not the persistence of the economic crisis. Spain had experienced from 2009 to 2013, a banking and real estate crisis. The economy is growing again, but unemployment is 13.9 percent, still far above the EU average. The regional parties from Catalonia could be the tip the scales when it comes to the formation of a government. A socialist, Sanchez had overthrown with their help, by a vote of no confidence of the conservative Prime Minister Rajoy. But this spring, the Catalan factions Sanchez refused consent to the budget, which in turn led to the new elections on Sunday. The head of the more moderate Catalan party (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, sitting in Madrid in the remand prison, where he organized the election campaign. He is accused of the independence referendum, but it would take probably more with the socialists in a coalition.
The socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez would go along with the left-Podemos and the Catalan. The chief of the people’s party, which is likely to strongly vote to the right-wing populists, would form a coalition with the “Vox” and the more liberal “bourgeois party”. If one of the bearings can reach a majority, but it is unclear. “These two camps block each other, because they exclude a coalition in the middle,” says the political scientist, Torre Blanca, in Madrid, in an interview with DW. The liberal-in-chief of the “citizens,” Albert Rivera, wants to form a coalition with the socialists Sanchez, which he accuses the Spanish Central government to dissolve and want to tell.
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Spain: dual vocational training for unemployment
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Spain: dual vocational training for unemployment
Europe is not an issue
None of the parties has made the European Union on the subject. Opposition to Brussels is playing in Spain, not a role. “The Spaniards do not see Europe as the enemy. Therefore, you also don’t want any controversy to the European Integration. In this respect, Spain is something of an island in the lake of Euro-scepticism and Euro-phobia in other countries,” says Ignacio Torreblanca from the “European Council on Foreign Relations”. As all the parties promise tax cuts and higher spending and not responsive to high Pension costs, could Spain’s increase in debt soon to be again over the tolerable level. The borrowing is 2.5 percent of annual economic output. The responsible EU Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, the power of Spain, no Worries. “Campaign promises I will not comment,” said Moscovici, the newspaper “El Pais”. “The Spanish growth is robust.” Yet both the conservative and the socialist government have shown a responsible fiscal policy. “If that is so, we can dismiss Spain after ten years, the budgetary procedure of the EU Commission,” promised Moscovici, three days before the election.