The squalid Socialist victory reinforces the political blockade in Spain

USPA NEWS - It is the paradox of politics: Sunday's legislative elections in Spain left a loser - the center-right party Citizens, which lost 47 seats and 2.5 million votes - and a winner - the far-right party Vox, which won 951,971 votes and went from 24 deputies after the elections on April to 52 this Sunday - but also other parties to which, although they won votes and seats or, as in the case of the Socialist Party, the elections, their victories know them to defeat.

It is paradoxical that the winning party of the legislative elections on Sunday November 10 in Spain is considered unsuccessful, but the parliamentary arithmetic does not deceive and the Socialist Party, which after the elections on April 28 obtained 123 deputies, six months later only has 120. The November 10 elections were the personal commitment of the Socialist candidate and acting Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who hoped to win a strong victory that would allow him to form a strong government without the support of the independence parties or the extreme left. But his bet failed and the squalid victory achieved on Sunday - only 35 deputies more than the conservative Popular Party - leaves the Socialists in a weaker position to negotiate. If, before the elections, Pedro Sanchez demanded from the opposition parties his support or abstention without conditions, after the November 10 elections his ability to demand has diminished.

The feeling among the Spaniards is that, in order to reach this situation, it was not necessary to repeat the elections. If he want to form a Government, the acting Prime Minister must agree to the abstention of the conservative Popular Party or the support of the extreme left represented in Podemos, the Basque nationalists and some residual parties, in addition to the abstention of the Catalan Republicans. Pacts that are announced difficult, after Pedro Sanchez himself closed the door of the Government to the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, and that he threatened to apply a new article 155 of the Constitution in Catalonia and intervene in Catalan institutions.

The abstention of the conservative Popular Party is also difficult because it would leave the role of only opposition to the extreme left party Vox. With 52 deputies, Vox is the third political force in Parliament and can block laws passed by the Socialist majority in the Lower House in the Constitutional Court. It is not easy for the Socialist Party that, in addition, has lost the absolute majority in the Senate, necessary to approve the application of 155 in Catalonia.

From hope to chaos

At the other extreme, the debacle of the centrist Citizens party claimed the head of the president of the formation on Monday. Albert Rivera submitted his resignation to the front of Citizens and announced that he is leaving politics. The future of his party goes through an extraordinary congress where the militants choose a new leadership and a new president. Most of the current party leaders have been left out of Parliament.