Spain’s Socialists have lost one seat after the vote count from abroad in the recent election, making it more difficult for them to form a left-wing coalition, according to analysts speaking to Reuters on Saturday. The Socialists will now need the support of hardline Catalan separatists rather than just their abstention.
In the closely contested election, neither the left nor right blocs secured enough seats for a majority, with Catalan separatist parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Junts emerging as kingmakers, with seven seats each.
The ERC is likely to back Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, but the revised seat count revealed that Junts, the more hardline of the Catalan parties, would also need to actively support him to form a government.
Sanchez called for the early election after left-wing parties suffered losses in local and regional elections in May. Although the left performed better than expected, Sanchez, now in a caretaker role, faces challenges in forming a government.
The vote count from over 233,000 Spanish citizens living abroad awarded one seat in Madrid to the PP, which had initially been awarded to the Socialists. While this has not yet been officially confirmed by electoral authorities, it means that the PP could secure a total of 171 votes in a parliamentary vote to form a government.
The revised seat count also allows Sanchez to muster 171 seats, with support from the Socialists, the far-left Sumar party, Esquerra, the Basque separatists EH Bildu, the Basque Nationalist Party, and the Galician Nationalist Bloc.
Prior to the seat change caused by the foreign vote count, the left bloc had 172 votes, while the PP and its allies Vox and UPN had 170. This meant that Sanchez only needed Junts to abstain for a simple majority. However, with the new seat count, Sanchez will likely need at least one vote from Junts to beat the PP and its allies.
“This will make it harder for Sanchez because if he needs their votes, it will give Junts more power to demand things in return,” said Pablo Simon, a political analyst at the Carlos III University in Madrid.
Junts, which has a harder stance on Catalonia’s independence than the ERC, has stated that its conditions for supporting Sanchez include permission to hold a referendum on independence and amnesty for all separatists facing legal charges related to a failed independence bid in 2017. However, the holding of a referendum would require a change in the Spanish Constitution and the support of a majority of lawmakers.
The PP leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, is still determined to try to form a right-wing coalition.
“Feijoo wants to govern for all Spaniards,” said Pedro Rollan, the PP regional coordinator.
Yolanda Díaz, the leader of the Sumar party, called on all “progressive forces” to support Sanchez.
“I believe that political groups must rise to the occasion, and I appeal to the progressive and democratic forces of the country to guarantee (Sanchez) is voted in as prime minister,” she said.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley; Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini in Rome; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Credit: The Star : News Feed
