Aragón becomes fourth region in Spain where far right has share of power

2023-08-04 15:42:20

It’s been nine days since Spain’s July 23rd general election took place and the surprise ‘draw’ between the right-wing Popular Party and the Socialists.

READ MORE: If the PP was most voted party, why haven’t they won Spain’s election?

Since then, candidates Feijóo and Sánchez have pushed for coalitions with smaller parties to gain crucial parliamentary seats that could edge them closer to a majority, Catalan separatist parties have stated they will only give Sánchez’s left-wing block support in return for another independence referendum, and the pending votes from Spaniards overseas have been recounted (with an extra seat gained by the PP).

In truth the situation is no clearer than it was a week ago, and although the support of Canary nationalist party Coalición Canaria could help Sánchez gain the much sought-after investiture, the prospect of another general election is looming.

Spain has suffered from chronic political instability for eight yearswhich may partly explain the results of a recent survey by Spanish bank BBVA.

According to the Fundación BBVA de Cultura Política study, 58 percent of Spaniards are in favour of the Popular Party and the PSOE forming a State Pact which would see both parties decide who governs and how without Spaniards having to cast their votes once again.

A pacto de Estado is when parties with opposing political views agree the long-term action of the State regarding a particular matter.

There have been several other State Pacts in Spain since the country became a democracy, regarding public pensions, terrorism and gender violence – this time it would be over forming a coalition or deciding who takes power.

BBVA’s survey also found that 45 percent of Spaniards would view a coalition between the main centre-right and the centre-left parties “positively”, although 84 percent responded that either a State Pact or a PP-PSOE coalition were “improbable”.

What is rather revealing is that the survey was carried out between April 12th and July 21st, prior to the general election, reflecting how many Spaniards had already grown tired of the constant political deadlocks that have been happening in the country over the past decade.

Spaniards have had to vote in general elections five times since 2015 and and no party has gained an absolute majority since 2011.

Although a coalition between the right and left in Spain may seem “improbable” to most, political commentators have pointed to Germany as an example that such alliances between parties with opposing views are perfectly feasible.

There hasn’t been a single party that’s gained an absolute majority in Germany since 1953, and the current coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz is made up of centre-left and centre-right parties.

PP-PSOE coalitions have taken place numerous times on a regional and local level in Spain, could now be the time to adopt the same approach at a national level? That would depend on who you ask.

Twenty-three percent of respondents to BBVA’s survey said they would prefer a single party to govern in Spain.

And despite Spanish voters’ apparent openness to what’s been called ‘the great coalition’ (PP-PSOE), when given the choice of a coalition government that’s either fully right wing, fully left wing or left and right wing, only 12 percent of respondents opted for the latter.