20th December elections in Spain – a new chapter in Spanish politics
Spain’s general elections took place on 20th December and as they were very close to the Christmas holidays, many Spanish who live abroad had an opportunity to vote directly in Spain without the problems and inconvenience of voting through an embassy.
The weeks before the election were very controversial with all party leaders attacking each other’s ideas instead of defending their own.
Even one week before the elections, the current Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy (presidente del Gobierno) was attacked in his own city by a seventeen year old teenager.
Traditionally Spanish politics has been focussed around two parties: Partido Popular (PP), a conservative party who are currently in power and Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), a socialist party who were previously in government for 22 years of the 37 years of democracy in Spain.
Bear in mind that Spain had a dictator for more than 35 years under Franco (1939-1975).
See graphics of last results of elections in Spain:
2011 2007
There were other parties in this election such us IU, UPyD, PNV (basque party) CIU and ERC (catalan parties), BNG (Galician party), PA (Andalusian party), CA (Canarian party) but together they failed to achieve more than 25% of the total vote.
However this election was different: Two new parties, Podemos and Ciudadanos, were fighting to finish with “bipartidismo” (the Spanish word use to define that only two parties have most of parliamentarians in Spanish Parliament). Both were the result of many years of alleged corruption and political scandals by PP and PSOE.
Podemos was a result of the anti-austerity movement (15-M) that took place in 2011 against the politicians in charge and Ciudadanos. They were originally a Catalan party and they convinced many voters to finish with “bipartidismo” and adopt more liberal ideas.
The result of the election was as expected with a rise in popularity for the two new parties and a big loss of votes for PP and PSOE.
PP lost their absolute majority of 28% of total of votes in 2015 compared with 44% in 2011.
In 2011 PP and PSOE shared 75% of votes compared to less than 50% in 2015 with Podemos and Ciudadanos getting 33% of votes together. See below graphic of the results:
“Escaños” means the number of seats in Parliament:
PP: 123 escaños
PSOE: 90 escaños
Podemos: 69 escaños
Ciudadanos: 40 escaños.
The 20 December election has resulted in a very difficult coalition government with all 4 parties unwilling to negotiate over very different ideas.
After many years and scandals of ‘bipartidismo’ politics, Podemos and Ciudadanos do not want a coalition with PP and PSOE, so it looks like Spain may see further elections in the coming months.
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Very good summary of the political situation in Spain. Thanks, Enric!
It is true that there is a possibility of an election soon. The future situation is a mystery, as the parties are still in discussions.
Newspapers (Spanish and international ones) talk about it every day:
http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/12/23/actualidad/1450869148_958153.html
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2016/01/05/spains-politicians-have-one-week-to-form-a-government-or-risk-forcing-a-second-general-election/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/28/spains-podemos-leader-rules-out-coalition-with-any-party
As much as the result of these elections was a surprise, it shows that fundamental changes are occurring around Europe (consider British rise of the SNP or the French National Front). Majority of EU states are governed by either parties affiliated to the Christian Democrats or Social Democrats which have been putting forward the same message for many years. The result in Spain and elsewhere shows that people have had enough thus they are looking elsewhere.
You can see the same situation in Latin America where not long ago the Venezuelan elections turned out to be a bit of a shock for Nicolas Maduro who hasn’t lost the presidency but nonetheless parliamentary elections may turn out to be the first step to a big change. The country has been hit by record low oil prices which goes to show that reliance on export of a single commodity will always be a dangerous game of lazy leaders. Venezuelan citizens are the ones to get the heaviest knock and the parliamentary election result can be an indication of this growing awareness.
Another example is Argentina where just before Christmas Mauricio Macri has been given a public mandate (with a very narrow margin) to put the country back on track. The list of things to be done is enormous and goes from road safety to getting the country’s economy back on track (diplomacy will play a big part in this). Reforms are under way with scrapping of taxes and quotas on agricultural exports (essential for making Argentina a bit more competitive) and already success achieved with a 120,000 tonnes of wheat sold to Egypt. There is a lot more to be done however Congress is still in the hands of Peronists who aren’t going to make it easy however if Mr. Macri puts his actions forward as crucial for citizens well-being who knows maybe this will yield a success.