While in Italy we continue to vote for the municipal election ballots, in Spain i administrative results of the weekend caused a political earthquake that will lead the country to the polls five months early. This morning, speaking at Moncloa, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stunned the citizens by reacting in a clear and peremptory way to the socialist defeat accrued during the local elections: Sanchez in fact dissolved Parliament and has called early elections for next July 23rd.
Addressing the nation on TV, the Premier announced that he had already informed King Felipe VI, head of state, of his decision to convene an extraordinary Council of Ministers for Monday afternoon "for the purpose of dissolving the Courts and convening the general elections". In his opinion, it is right that the Spaniards “take the floor to decideand what will be the political direction of the country” following the defeat of the Socialist Party in the administrative elections and in view of the important appointment in July, when Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the European Commission.
The prime minister did not utter the word “resignation”, but in fact that is what it is. His mandate should in fact have ended in December, with the general elections, but prolonging the government for another 6 months, according to the Spanish newspapers, would have delivered the country into the hands of the right. Not only to the revived Partido Popular, but above all to the extremists of Vox.
The results of the administrative elections in Spain
Over the last weekend in Spain were held administrative elections to elect the representatives of some of the most important autonomous communities - similar to our Regions - and of some of the largest cities in the country. The People's Party, the historic center-right party of the country for years in difficulty, has obtained a better than expected victory. The results are stark. The PSOE, the socialist party to which Premier Sanchez belongs, has managed to hold on to power in three of the regions called to vote, another six have passed to the popular ones, while the Canary Islands remain in the balance. Passing from theory to practice, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rjoia, Extremadura and the community of Valencia ended up in the hands of the Popular Party. The PSOE, on the other hand, has maintained a majority in Castilla-La Mancha, Asturias and Navarra, while in the Canary Islands the majority will depend on agreements with the autonomist party.
And the cities? The centre-right obtained the majority a Madrid, in Valencia, Valladolid, Palma de Mallorca and others Seville. A Barcelona instead the independence supporters, led this year by Xavier Trias, prevailed once again. before the socialist Jaume Collboni and the outgoing mayor Ada Colau, supported by Unidas Podemos. In the Basque Country, the autonomists of Bildu won.
Defeat of Podemos and opportunity for Vox
Numbers in hand, in the local elections over the weekend, the PP won 1,8 million more votes than in the last elections of 2019. The Psoe, on the other hand, lost 1,2%. Much wider the debacle of the other left-wing parties, Podemos Unidas above all, which led to the resounding electoral defeat that prompted the Premier to call early elections.
In parallel, despite the victory, the Popular Party will not be able to govern alone in many territories and, to obtain a majority, it will need the far right of Vox. Negotiations between the two political forces are already underway, with the former asking for external support and the latter instead asking for government roles in view of the early elections in July.
