2023-05-30 06:30:00
After the hard blow that the left received in Spain at the polls, and which became a warning bell for several Latin American States where the self-styled progressivism governs with a confrontational tone –as is the case of Colombia and Chile–, the Executive of the European country decided to call a general election.
Indeed, the president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, announced by surprise on Monday the advancement of the national legislative elections for July 23, after the defeat of his party in the municipal and regional elections on Sunday.
“The elections will be held on Sunday, July 23,” Sánchez announced in an institutional statement from the Moncloa palace -in Madrid-, specifying that he had made “this decision in view of the results of the elections held yesterday (Sunday)”. .
“I assume the results in first person and I believe it is necessary to give an answer and submit our democratic mandate to the popular will,” Sánchez deepened.
The council of ministers met this Monday afternoon to endorse the announcement, whose publication in the Official State Gazette will lead to the dissolution of Parliament this Wednesday.
The deadline to hold elections was in December, and few expected the advance, taking into account that Spain will hold the presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2023.
The opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of the conservative Popular Party, the great winner of Sunday’s elections, reacted to the news by stating that Spain “has embarked on a path of renewal that is now unstoppable.”
According to analysts, Sánchez, 51, who arrived at Moncloa in 2018 after the victory of a motion of no confidence against conservative Mariano Rajoy, needed to regain the initiative.
“It’s a change of direction for Sánchez to stop talking about yesterday’s defeat,” Paloma Román, a doctor in political science from the Complutense University of Madrid, told AFP.
The Socialists “have not lost that much, and they can maintain themselves at a level that can help them, and, on the other hand, if they held out in government “perhaps it would have been worse,” said Román, recalling that they obtained only 800,000 fewer votes than the conservatives of the Popular Party, in a census of more than 35 million people.
In the elections on Sunday, the PP of Núñez Feijóo, who presented these elections as a plebiscite on Sánchez, wrested important mayoralties from the Socialists such as those of Seville and Valencia, in addition to revalidating with an absolute majority the governments of the city and the region of Madrid.
In addition, the PP prevailed in six regions where the Socialists governed, alone or in coalition: the Valencian Community, Aragon, Extremadura, La Rioja, the Balearic Islands and Cantabria.
The day was also victorious for the extreme right of Vox, whose support will prove necessary for conservatives in many places. In the municipal elections, the PP obtained more than 7 million votes (31.5%), compared to 6.2 million (28.1%) for Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE.
Sánchez arrived at the meeting weakened by wear and tear after more than five years in government and the impact of inflation on the purchasing power of the population, but also by the constant clashes between the Socialists and their radical left coalition partners.
For this reason, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid region, assured that Sánchez is “in a dead end.” And Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right of Vox, added that it is “excellent news, because the Spanish have their voices returned after four years of lies.”
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