Spain: the new era of Pedro Sánchez

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After 11 years, the socialist party won against the right. Pedro Sánchez is the new president of the Spanish Government

Despite the uncertainty and indecision, the Spaniards left on Sunday, April 28 to vote in the country's general elections. Pablo Casado by the Partido Popular (PP), Albert Rivera by the party Ciudadanos, Pablo Iglesias by the coalition Unidas Podemos, Santiago Abascal of the Voz party, and Pedro Sánchez of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) were the candidates who aspired to the maximum position, the last one being the winner.

Leer en español: España: la nueva era de Pedro Sánchez

In elections marked by the Catalan independence movement, and therefore Spanish nationalism, around 75.78% of people went out to vote, increasing the 2016 figure, nine more points. In this way, the PSOE took not only the presidency, but the majority of seats in Congress with 123. While the PP, and who had fallen in the 2016 elections, achieved 66 seats.

In addition, Unidas Podemos won 42 seats, Ciudadanos won 57 and Vox, 24. In this way, the Spanish left won 165 seats, while the right 147. However, the majority achieved by the left does not reach Sanchez to govern by complete the House because it did not achieve the 176 necessary seats.

It was a clear victory for Sanchez, who after attending the request of the opposition parties to call elections last February, risked his position and showed them the power of his party against a highly divided society. Thus, in the first statements after knowing the results, Sanchez said, "has won the future and has lost the past. We do not want involution, we want a country that advances".

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A new divided era

One of the biggest losers of the day was the PP, who lost 71 seats with respect to the 2016 elections, which shows the difficult situation that the party is going through. Headed by Pablo Casado, who took the lead after Mariano Rajoy left office, he has failed to attract voters (who have migrated to parties like Vox and Ciudadanos), as it is evident that the ghosts of Rajoy even today disappoint the Spaniards, "a failure inevitably related to cases of corruption that (…) have ended up taking its toll", as El Mundo affirms.

In this way, the right-wing parties, Ciudadanos and Vox, have entered the ring by strengthening themselves, since the last one won 25 more seats than in the 2016 elections, while the latter achieved a considerable number, bearing in mind that they are one of the more radical parties on the right. Until 2013, Spain did not have a visible extreme right, and these are the ones who advocate "suspending the autonomy of Catalonia (…) expelling illegal immigrants, opposing homosexual marriage, euthanasia and abortion, and censoring the feminism of the left ", according to El Espectador.

With this panorama, taking into account that Sanchez does not have enough to govern alone, he needs to create alliances with parties to be able to come out afloat. Due to the similarity of ideologies, it is obvious that his first ally is Unidas Podemos, whose leader, Pablo Iglesias "was one of the first to telephone Sanchez and have been in seeing and talking about pacts," according to El Periódico.

However, despite while celebrating the triumph the citizens shouted "with Rivera no! With Rivera no!" (Albert Rivera), and Sanchez answered "it has been clear", Rivera could be the card that Sanchez needs to aim for a" moderate government to guarantee both economic and territorial stability", according to El Mundo.

Second opportunity

With this new government, it is expected that Sanchez chooses not to commit the mistakes for which he was so criticized (the rapprochement and the dialogue table with the pro-independence people), avoiding creating alliances and blackmail with these parties. Recall that by stopping the dialogues days before the vote of the National Budget, triggered in the realization of past elections do not have the necessary support.

With the alliances that he believes within his Government, it will be enough to achieve stability in the country, which for the first time in several years was more concerned with the social situation than with the economic situation, which took a back seat. In this way, a new era begins for Sánchez and for Spain, which managed to separate itself from the rightist speeches characteristic of the last elections in different countries.

LatinAmerican Post | Laura Viviana Guevara Muñoz

Translated from "España: la nueva era de Pedro Sánchez"