ARCHIVED - Left-wing parties bury the hatchet to attempt coalition government in Spain

A surprise pact has been reached in under 48 hours after 6 months of argument following the April election

In a development which has caught almost all political observers by surprise it was announced on Tuesday that Sunday’s general election may well lead to the formation of a government with a working parliamentary after all.

When the results of Sunday’s voting became clear it seemed obvious that neither right-wing nor left-wing groups would be able to join forces in order to command a majority in an investiture debate or in a subsequent legislature, but on Tuesday Pedro Sánchez of the socialist PSOE party and Pablo Iglesias of Unidas Podemos appeared at a joint announcement that the basic principles of a ruling coalition have been agreed upon. This possibility had been discounted by many: after all, in the six months after the April 2019 election, when both parties won slightly more seats, the two men had failed to agree on a formula which pleased both sides, and this time they have done so in under 48 hours.

The announcement of their agreement to bury the hatchet on Tuesday was marked by smiles and a relaxed atmosphere, with the two men sharing a hug as all of the bitter mutual recriminations of the last six months appeared to be forgotten.

There are still hurdles to be overcome before Pedro Sánchez can be re-appointed Prime Minister of Spain, not least of them the fact that between them the PSOE and Unidas Podemos hold only 155 of the 350 seats in Congress (120 and 35 respectively). This means that support from other less represented parties (or at least a guarantee of their abstention in an investiture vote) will be needed in order for Sr Sánchez to be allowed to form a government.

Those likely to support the coalition include the MPs representing Más País (3), the BNG party in Galicia (1), Coalición Canaria (2) and the PNV in the Basque Country (7), but a little more is needed to push the potentially historic PSOE-UP coalition over the line.

In this situation the spotlight falls on two parties whose collaboration with Pedro Sánchez might at first appear unlikely. One is Ciudadanos, currently leaderless following the electoral disaster on Sunday which led to them losing 47 out of 57 seats on Sunday and to the resignation of Albert Rivera, but initially the remains of the party has ruled the idea out.

The other, intriguingly, is the ERC Catalan separatist party, with 13 MPs. Many of the party’s leaders are currently behind bars for their role in the events in Catalunya two years ago, and it would be logical to suppose that a group lobbying for secession from Spain would find the idea of supporting a central government in Madrid difficult to stomach.

On the other hand, though, arguably the most significant development in Sunday’s election was the massive strengthening of support for the far right-wing party Vox, which advocates the centralization of government in all of Spain’s regions and the punishment of all of those who rebel against national unity. Analysts believe that a third election would lead to even more electoral support for Vox, and ERC (and others) will be keen to avoid such a scenario.

In short, then, the situation is a complex one, but now that Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias have managed to see eye to eye – possibly having realized that if they failed to do so the Vox juggernaut could gather yet more momentum – there is thought to be a chance that at long last a new Spanish government will be in place, with Pablo Iglesias of Unidas Podemos being named one of the vice-presidents, before the end of the year.

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