Catalan separatism dominates debate ahead of poll that could redraw nation’s political map
The two women who stand chatting in the porch of San Ginés church in Guadalajara on a crisp November afternoon speak eloquently for a large portion of the Spanish nation.
“Estoy hasta el gorro,” says one after shaking her head and delivering a fusillade of sighs: I’m sick to the back teeth of it all.
Continue reading...Quim Torra urges dialogue for democratic solution to tensions following fifth consecutive night of violence
Catalonia’s president, Quim Torra, has called for talks with the Spanish government after Friday’s huge, peaceful march held in protest at the jailing of nine pro-independence Catalan leaders was followed by a fifth consecutive night of violent unrest in Barcelona and others parts of the region.
Speaking on Saturday morning, Torra again condemned the violence of recent days, adding: “Violence has never been our flag.”
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez confuses prized jamón ibérico for plain old jamón serrano in ‘serious error’
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has confused jamón ibérico, the prized Spanish ham, with run-of-the-mill jamón serrano in a gaffe on a par with a French politician referring to a fine burgundy as plonk.
Speaking at the centuries-old livestock fair in Zafra in Extremadura, western Spain, Sánchez left his audience open-mouthed when he told them “you can be sure that when the Chinese president visited Spain he would have been served a plate of jamón serrano from Extremadura”.
Continue reading...Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez appears to have failed in bid to form a stable government
Spain looks set to return to the polls for the fourth time in as many years in November after last-ditch efforts to break the deadlock following April’s inconclusive vote came to nothing late on Tuesday.
Although the Spanish socialist party (PSOE), led by the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, won the most votes five months ago, it fell well short of a majority in the country’s 350-seat congress.
Continue reading...Socialist party leader Pedro Sánchez fails to win support of anti-austerity Unidas Podemos
Spain’s Socialist party leader, Pedro Sánchez, has failed in his first attempt to form a new government after the anti-austerity Unidas Podemos party abstained in a parliamentary vote.
Sánchez, who has been acting prime minister since an inconclusive election in April, needed an absolute majority of at least 176 votes in his favour in the 350-seat house to be confirmed as PM. Instead he received 124 votes in favour and 170 against, and there were 52 abstentions.
Continue reading...King Felipe has tasked acting prime minister Pedro Sánchez with assembling a coalition
Spain’s King Felipe VI has tasked acting prime minister Pedro Sánchez with forming a new government, a complex undertaking that will involve negotiations with diverging parties.
While they won a general election in April and gained lawmakers compared with the previous term, Sánchez’s socialists failed to secure a majority in parliament and will need the support of other groupings.
Continue reading...France, Germany, Italy and others go to polls on Sunday, with gains expected for nationalist parties
The western world’s largest democratic exercise is nearing its finale as tens of millions of EU citizens in 21 countries go to the polls on Sunday, the last of four days of voting in European parliament elections that will shape the bloc’s future.
Polls suggest the vote will produce a more fragmented parliament than ever before, with the two centre-right and centre-left groups that have dominated Europe’s politics forecast to lose their joint majority for the first time, and nationalist and populist forces to make gains.
Continue reading...Victory of PSOE in Sunday’s election comes at expense of centre-right that tried to outflank extremists
A decisive socialist win in Spain’s election on Sunday may be seen in Europe as evidence of a gathering centre-left recovery – but it also underlines the dangers to moderate conservatives of courting the far right.
Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party (PSOE) won 123 seats and 29% of the vote in Sunday’s election, well up on the 85 seats and 23% they got in 2016. The conservative People’s party (PP) lost half its vote share and half its MPs, finishing second with 66 seats.
Continue reading...PSOE wins 123 seats on 75% turnout and likely to seek coalition to reach 176-seat target for working majority
Spain’s ruling socialists won the most votes but fell short of a majority in Sunday’s snap general election, a contest marked by the breakthrough of the far-right Vox party and a disastrous performance by the country’s traditional conservative party.
Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) won 123 seats, the conservative People’s party (PP) 66, the centre-right Citizens party 57, the anti-austerity Unidas Podemos and its allies 42, and Vox 24.
Continue reading...Early polls suggest PM and socialist party leader Pedro Sánchez emerged most favourably from the debate
On Monday night the leaders of Spain’s four main political parties went head to head in a 90-minute televised debate in which they hoped to sway the 30% of the electorate who remain undecided as the nation faces an extended period of weak coalition government and instability. The far-right Vox party was excluded on the grounds that it is not as yet represented in parliament.
Aside from two women spotted mopping the studio floor in a cutaway shot prior to the debate, it was an all-male affair that produced neither much heat nor light. It was divided into four segments – taxation and employment, education, pensions and health, territorial issues and possible coalitions.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pedro Sánchez says rhetoric in both debates will lead societies down blind alley
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has compared Brexit to the failed push for Catalan independence, warning that “engaging in campaigns or political projects based on lies eventually leads societies down a blind alley”.
Renewing his appeal for the UK to accept the EU’s withdrawal deal, Sánchez said he saw clear parallels between the rhetoric that drove the Brexit debate and the arguments used in the regional independence campaign that plunged Spain into its worst crisis in four decades.
Continue reading...The gates of the suburban mausoleum that could soon house Spain’s most restless ghost are decked with a shrivelling bunch of red and yellow carnations, a handful of prayer cards and a cheap, broken crucifix.
If the socialist government’s long and fraught campaign to exhume Francisco Franco from the fascist splendour of the Valley of the Fallen finally succeeds, his body will be reinterred in June here in the humbler surroundings of the Mingorrubio-El Pardo municipal cemetery.
Continue reading...Political landscape fragmented amid Catalan secession crisis and re-emergence of far-right
Spain is heading into what could be months of political uncertainty after its Socialist prime minister called a snap general election for April – the country’s third in less than four years – against the backdrop of a continuing Catalan secession crisis.
It was always improbable that Pedro Sánchez, whose administration will be the shortest in Spain’s modern democratic history, would last long. He came to power in June only because his predecessor, the conservative Mariano Rajoy, lost a no-confidence vote after a string of corruption revelations about his People’s Party (PP).
Continue reading...Catalan secessionists likely to join right against Pedro Sánchez’s government
Spain’s socialist government could be forced to call a snap general election if rightwing parties and Catalan secessionists make good on their threats to reject the national budget in a key vote on Wednesday.
The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces an uphill battle to secure approval for the budget in the face of opposition from critics of his minority government.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of people gathered in Madrid on Sunday to protest against the government’s handling of the Catalan question, as the country braced for the landmark trial of 12 separatist leaders this week. About 45,000 people joined the rally in Colón square to vent their fury at what they see as the overly conciliatory stance adopted by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and to demand a snap general election.
Thousands protest in Madrid before trial of Catalan separatists