Spanish parties begin talks to try to get out of the electoral blockade

the conservative People’s Party (PP) has started talks with other parties to seek their support to lead a new government, while the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) He said he wanted to avoid a repeat of the elections after the elections on Sunday will end with a parliament without majorities.

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, celebrated a victory “indisputable” in Sunday’s elections, despite the fact that the right did not achieve the expected absolute majority.

The PP and the far-right Vox, which were emerging as possible coalition partners, obtained 169 seats in the Congress of Deputies, out of 350, which is why they did not reach the 176 deputies necessary to ensure a parliamentary majority. They will only be able to form a government with the support of other smaller parties.

“I have started the talks taking into account that the Spanish have decided not to give anyone an absolute majority”said Feijóo, and added: “We will not be held hostage by anyone.”

The Socialists, in government, and the left-wing Sumar party won 153 seats, a better result than expected.

The acting president, Pedro Sánchez, has more options to form a government and is expected to seek the support of the small Catalan and Basque pro-independence parties, as he already did after the 2019 elections.

Among them is Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which has seven seats. Sánchez would also probably need the backing of Junts, which has not supported him in the last four years and also has seven seats.

The PP will be the first party to try to gather enough votes in Parliament to form a government. But an agreement with Vox and its tough stance against the independence movement will make it difficult for any other faction to support it.

Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN), with one seat, is the only center-right party that will support Feijóo’s candidacy, so it would lack six votes.

The regionalist Canarian Coalition, which also has a deputy, governs the Canary Islands together with the PP, but has publicly rejected Vox’s speech.

The rest of the parties have indicated their opposition to any coalition that includes the extreme right.

Talks

Sánchez’s chances of success could be decided by former Catalonia regional president Carles Puigdemont, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Belgium since leading a failed push to make the region independent in 2017.

If Sánchez can secure the five seats of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the six of Bildu and the seven of ERC, as he did in 2020, an abstention from Junts would be enough for the coalition of PSOE and Sumar to win an investiture vote.

The general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, said on Monday that he would take advantage of the “window of opportunity” created by the electoral impasse to achieve the independence of Catalonia.

Turull was one of nine Catalan separatist leaders jailed for their role in the 2017 independence bid and pardoned by Sánchez in 2021.

However, many more still face lawsuits, chief among them Puigdemont.

Puigdemont, who still wields considerable influence within Junts, said in mid-July that his party would not support Sánchez because he was unreliable. Early on Monday he tweeted that Junts is a party that keeps his word.

Puigdemont was stripped of the immunity he had as a member of the European Parliament earlier this month, paving the way for his extradition.

The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office again issued an arrest warrant against Puigdemont on Monday. He could face sentences of between 6 and 12 years in prison for embezzlement, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

A PSOE source said the party was confident of reaching an agreement, but negotiations would take time.

“We are sure of this and that (the elections) will not be repeated”the source claimed.

Sumar deputy Jaume Asens has already started talks with Junts on behalf of the platform, a party source said.

In limbo

Before the election, the PP seemed set to forge an alliance with Vox, a result that would have brought hardline nationalists to government for the first time since the end of the Franco dictatorship and Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The blockade leaves the country in limbo. If neither bloc manages to muster enough parliamentary support to form a government, a second election may be held around Christmas, Eurointelligence said in a note.

Another PSOE source said the party would let the PP make the first attempt to form a government.

“There is no rush, let Feijóo do what he wants”said the source. “The next step is to go on vacation.”

Source: Reuters