By Laia Serrano i Sorroca | Staff Writer
Over the course of this year, Spanish citizens will face two electoral events, one this spring and the other at the end of the year. Through them, they will be asked to choose the composition of their local and state governments, thus either consolidating or putting an end to the center-left tendencies that have been governing the state administration over the last few years. Indeed, Spain remains one of the bastions of the left in Europe, yet, the stability of the caretaker government has been compromised at various times during the current term.
The first voting will be held on Sunday, May 28, when residents of all cities and villages in the Iberian country will be called to elect their town hall representatives. On that same day, Spanish citizens living in 14 out of the 17 Autonomous Communities (the administrative denomination for the regions and nations comprising Spain), will be also summoned to polls in order to elect their regional assemblies’ representatives. The only five Autonomous Communities that will not celebrate regional elections this year are Catalonia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, Galicia and Castile, and León, given that the office term of these governments has not yet reached four years.
The second key date on which all Spaniards will be called upon to cast their votes remains to be set. However, the interpretation of the Spanish electoral law determines Sunday, 10 December as the last possible day to hold the general elections. On that day, the citizens of Spain will be on the ballot to elect the members of the two chambers composing the legislative branch: the Senate and the Congress of Deputies. The latter institution will be the one that, once constituted, will elect the President of the new government.
The current central government, composed of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the leftist Unidas Podemos (Together We Can), has been in office since January 7th, 2020, when the Congress of Deputies elected Pedro Sánchez as the head of the executive institution. Sánchez, who is also PSOE’s Secretary General since 2017, had to build up a coalition in order to rule the country. However, the coalition only gathers 166 of the 350 deputies in the lower chamber and has therefore required the support of many external alliances throughout the term in order to push through its bills. For the most part, the ruling parties have opted to negotiate and secure the votes of the leftist and centrist minority parties, as well as the Basque, Catalan, and Galician nationalists. This practice has been strongly criticized by the opposition, led by the conservative Popular Party (PP), which considers these pacts a threat to Spain’s territorial integrity.
As for VOX, the extreme right-wing party holding 52 seats in the chamber, it has repeatedly underlined its aim to bring down this government, which it has accused of being one of the worst in Spain’s history. Indeed, it has accused it of being formed by a “dangerous communist group – in reference to Unidas Podemos, and sustained by the enemies of the constitutional order – meaning the Catalan nationalists, and the heirs of terrorism – referring to Basque nationalists”. In this context, last March 20, the party filed a no-confidence motion and presented an alternative candidate for the presidency. However, the proposal failed, as only VOX MPs voted in favor.
Despite the fact that the electoral campaign period has not yet formally begun, the political terrain in the Iberian Peninsula is already preparing for these two major upcoming events, and the parties have started to choose their candidates, look for coalitions, and to organize
rallies. Certainly, the March 20 session was viewed by some as the proper platform for political groups to present their electoral programs. Accordingly, Pedro Sánchez took advantage of the occasion to reinforce his presidential position, while Yolanda Díaz – second Vice-president of the government and member of Podemos – took the opportunity to defend her political proposal, which she has articulated through the creation of Sumar (Unite or Add up) created in May 2022. On top, of last Sunday, April 2, Sumar held its first official rally presenting Díaz as a candidate for the presidency, in what could be the first female president in the history of Spain. The event was controversial, as not all members of Unidas Podemos support this political project, and it remains to be seen if both parties will agree to run together in the elections.
In turn, the right-wing parties are also divided, and the Popular Party which has undergone a serious leadership crisis in recent months fears losing its seats at the expense of the rise of VOX. While it is true that this remains a threat, the latest official statistics released in mid-March 2023 reveal that the popularity of VOX’s leader, Santiago Abascal, is shrinking.
Finally, the pro-independence parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia are currently focusing on the local elections, where their capacity for influence is higher. Additionally, their approach to state elections – especially in the case of Catalan parties – will be highly dependent on the outcome of the bilateral negotiations between the Spanish and the Catalan government. These talks were initiated in an attempt by the Spanish executive to shift its strategy on the question of independence but have not achieved to supply any meaningful results. In fact, the dialogue was seen by the pro-independence parties as an opportunity to negotiate the celebration of a referendum on independence, which Spain firmly refuses to grant.