Spain: Pedro Sánchez puts himself to the test | This Sunday there are regional and municipal elections

2023-05-28 02:51:42

The Spaniards are summoned this Sunday to the polls to elect regional governments in 13 of their 17 autonomous and municipal communities in all towns and cities. The results will, however, an inexorable national reading in anticipation of the elections that will be called before the end of the year and that will determine the continuity or the end of the progressive coalition government headed by Pedro Sánchez.

The Spanish institutional architecture is divided into three levels -local, regional and state- and this Sunday The elections will determine the governments for the next four years in the 8,131 municipalities (intendencies) and in 13 of the 17 autonomous communities. The only ones that do not vote to elect their regional governments are the four that, because they are considered historical, have autonomy to determine their own calendar (Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and Andalusia).

Messages

However, the way in which the election has been proposed, the messages from the national leaders and the initiative that Pedro Sánchez has tried to carry out throughout the campaign will make it inevitable that when the polls open the count will lead to a reading in a national key. . especially because The legislature, and with it the first full term of Pedro Sánchez, ends in December.

As soon as it is known who will be the heads of government of autonomous communities as powerful as those of Madrid, Valencia or Aragon or the mayors of strategic cities such as Madrid, Barcelona or SevilleSpain will enter an irremediable six-month electoral pre-campaign in which some of the controversies that preceded this Sunday’s elections will continue.

disputes

In a country severely punished by drought -Spain is the European country most affected by global warming- and by the price of rents, which have become unfeasible for the majority, especially in cities with the greatest tourist tension such as Madrid, Barcelona , Malaga or Seville, until last Wednesday, howeverthe main controversy of this campaign had been marked by the formation of the lists of the Basque independence coalition Bildu.

This formation represents the space that until just over a decade ago was considered the political arm of ETA. The terrorist organization laid down its weapons in October 2011 and announced its dissolution and dismantling of its structures in May 2018. However, the parliamentary agreements that the PSOE and Podemos government coalition reached with Bildu in this legislature to move forward with issues such as budgets, the increase in the minimum wage or the housing law that limits rental prices, was the object of harsh criticism not only from the political and media right, but also from prominent leaders of the old guard of the PSOE. Among the nearly 800 assassinated by the gang are 12 socialist leaders.

When Bildu presented its lists to different Basque town halls for these elections, it became known that they included 44 people who had been sentenced for issues related to ETAseven with crimes of blood, all of them with their sentences already served.

This issue, which the PP and Vox agitated against the PSOE, became the main issue of the campaign for much of it despite the fact that Bildu reacted by announcing that the seven convicted of blood crimes would not assume their positions should they be elected to avoid causing added pain to the victims.

It was thought that a more adverse scenario could not be presented for Pedro Sánchez, but everything had only just begun. The Socialists had planned a campaign of electoral advertisements, such as the construction of 186,000 houses or the bonus of the interrail (low-cost train trips throughout Europe), to attract the young vote, but they were forced to go on the defensive before a series of scandals that affected them fully.

buying votes

Several proceedings were added to the Bildu issue by alleged purchase of votes in different town halls that led to the arrest of members of socialist lists in Andalusia and Murcia -despite the fact that there were also complaints against the PP in other communities and municipalities-, to which was added the lifting of the secrecy of a bizarre event: the kidnapping of a socialist councilor by the couple of a socialist mayor in the town of Maracena, in the Andalusian province of Granada. The reading of the summary revealed that the judge considers three PSOE officials to be possible instigators of this event, including the Secretary of Organization of the Andalusian federation, and the motive that could have been to scare the mayor to prevent her from denouncing a possible case of urban corruption.

This succession of scandals not only led the campaign to a situation of tension with few precedents, but also raised a major question about what its electoral repercussions will be. The mystery will be resolved tonight.