Yolanda Díaz wanted to avoid a new battle on the left after the general elections, but Podemos has not given her truce. Neither its general secretary, Ione Belarra, nor its historical leader, Pablo Iglesias, who has taken revenge on RAC 1, in two different interventions on his own television and in an opinion article on CTXT, have respected the call to lay down their arms.. A good part of the rest of the forces integrated in the confluence that Díaz commands recognize the cessions that they have had to assume, as well as the injuries caused in an agonizing and accelerated process to unite the bloc.. However, they all repeat, without fissures, that now it is time to close ranks and let PP and Vox, who do not add up to govern, bleed to death with their own internal fights. “The important thing is that the extreme right does not govern”, is the slogan that they repeat in a loop.

Iglesias, who went ahead of Belarra on Sunday night, issued a severe warning in duplicate, reading his article in the press, word for word, on one of his television programs: “If the lack of an agreement between Junts and the PSOE imposes an electoral repetition, Sumar will have no excuse for not calling primaries and will not be able to veto anyone.”. That is, either Pedro Sánchez and Díaz manage to get Carles Puigdemont's party to abstain or theirs will not give up fighting for primaries that they have always demanded, which Díaz postponed while waiting for Podemos to lose steam on 28-M (as, indeed, it did) and they will demand primaries that everyone considered impossible given the tight deadlines imposed by the electoral advance.

Sumar has not even established its management bodies and the purple ones question its legitimacy to represent the 15 parties that make up. Iglesias already warned on election night that the five Podemos deputies will be under the orders of his leadership. In their ranks, they warn that these parliamentarians must enjoy autonomy, like the common ones (5) or the deputies of Más Madrid (2), and the former vice president of the Government also dropped that these parties, “which are not equal”, “and surely” will not be in the future Executive, it will be difficult for them to vote “in favor of each law” together with ERC, Bildu, PNV and BNG, without Junts voting against.

While Díaz's team politically revives Jaume Asens so that he builds bridges with Puigdemont, and assures that they will reach an agreement that allows the investiture, the purples insist that this understanding is enormously complicated.

Podemos has gone from having 23 deputies in the previous parliamentary group to having just five. In the new group there are even more deputies with PCE cards (6), the only party in which Díaz is still a member today. The role of the purples is completely blurred, and Irene Montero, banned from the lists, has no room to strike a blow while there are hopes of reediting the coalition.

Belarra and Iglesias have criticized the result obtained, and have recalled that Sumar loses more than 700,000 votes with respect to the “worst result” ever achieved by United We Can, in the last elections. The 28-M debacle, which devastated Podemos, does not enter his equation, just as it does not enter the one offered by Díaz, considering the previous results of his political space as a scale to measure his electoral performance.

The slogan is that Sumar is “a new space”, which had never been presented to the elections. This mantra coexists with the fact that Díaz has been a deputy for United We Can since 2016, and also with the call to reissue the Government, whose achievements Sumar boasts of, while insisting on selling itself as a formation without a past, debuting this 23-J. Until now, the second vice president has ignored the darts of the purple ones, and in the whole space there is discomfort due to the actions of Podemos, but they insist that today it is not time to confront allies.

That is why they try to set the pace for Sánchez, reaching the point of demanding a meeting to discuss a programmatic agreement and the distribution of ministerial portfolios of a future Government. The PSOE dilates the deadlines, and lets the right rebalance itself. In January 2016, the press conference in which Iglesias claimed various ministries was harshly criticized. Sumar has not clarified how many portfolios it aspires to control, but has raised the need to discuss the distribution just one day after the elections. In Díaz's party they even warn that they will not accept general directorates or state secretariats elevated to the formal rank of ministries, but lacking powers. It is time to turn the page as soon as possible and prevent their own allies from setting their agenda.

We live in the country where pedestals are erected and graves are dug the fastest.. It is one of the consequences of this policy of trenches that we have in Spain, which exacerbates everything, exaggerates it, hatred and affection, so that when the electoral expectations that had been created are frustrated, everything is more dramatic. Dizzying ups and downs, honeyed praises and poisoned stabs. Especially in Madrid, which is the center of all political debate, where conspiracies boil daily and evil runs like rats through the corridors of restaurants.. Precisely for this reason, it is always convenient to get away from these polarization currents, so powerful, and contemplate reality with some distance. and with more temperance. For example: Pedro Sánchez has achieved his objective in these general elections because he was the one who best knew how to interpret the results of the municipal and regional elections last May. We are going to look at the statement he made the day after the elections, in Moncloa, to announce that he was also bringing forward the general elections. What he maintained in that speech, and in those he made later before his own, deputies, senators and executive, is that the institutional weight that the PSOE had lost did not correspond to the electoral support it had obtained.

“Magnificent regional presidents, socialist mayors and mayors are going to be displaced with impeccable management. And this despite the fact that many have seen their support increase yesterday,” said Sánchez.

To most of us it might have seemed presumptuous: how could he speak that way, after the crash, with the number of town halls, councils and autonomous communities that the PSOE had lost? What the socialist leader noticed was that the map in which everything appeared dyed blue hid that the PSOE maintained a floor of more than six million votes (6,291,812), which was not so far from that achieved by the Popular Party, of seven million (7,054,887).. With a distance of 700,000 votes, one could not speak, indeed, of an electoral tsunami, in any case, an institutional tsunami. It may seem trivial to us, but these are very different social and political realities.

By calling immediate general elections, without giving time for the Popular Party to establish itself in the town halls and provincial councils, as well as in the autonomous communities, it could recover the 400,000 votes lost in May and aspire, with seven million Socialist votes, to a new parliamentary majority in the Congress of Deputies, even if it did not win the elections.. He has achieved it, more than enough, as has been seen, because everything has worked for him: the short-term electoral calculation, the mobilization of his abstentionist electorate and the useful vote that has come from the other lefts..

The problem of the Popular Party, and of all the predictions that have adorned it with flowers in these two months, has been just the opposite, having confused the institutional tsunami with an electoral tsunami. But none of this turns the result of these elections into a debacle for the PP. Absolutely. When it is stated that the Popular Party has collapsed on 23-J, or that it has fallen, the first thing that is ignored is that it has achieved a million more votes than two months ago. Anti-Sanchism, which already existed, not only has not deflated, but has increased in these elections to over 11 million votes, if we add those obtained by Vox. Let us think that with that same electoral figure, 11 million ballots, the Popular Party obtained a large absolute majority in 2011, the 186 seats of the first Government of Mariano Rajoy.

With the fragmented right, the electoral tsunami in general elections is impossible, although in municipal and regional elections they make an institutional tsunami possible with the pacts. Let's look at the mere sum: with the same votes with which Rajoy got those 186 deputies, the sum of PP and Vox now stands at 169 seats. There are 17 deputies who are lost due to the dispersion of the vote; the same dispersion that would have guaranteed the Popular Party an overwhelming absolute majority, like 12 years ago. In other words, the same number of votes that were raised against Zapaterismo in 2011 is the one that has gone to vote against Sanchismo in 2023, but leaving thousands of votes useless in many provinces in which the PP has not obtained one more seat due to the vote that has gone to Vox, which has not obtained anything in that constituency either..

In any case, whatever the data, what nothing and nobody is going to prevent is that this is the most bitter victory of the Popular Party in a general election. And since we are in the country of pedestals and tombs, as was said at the beginning, the leadership of Núñez Feijóo at the head of the PP has already begun to be questioned. It would be, by far, the worst mistake that the Popular Party could make and the only thing the PSOE general secretary needs to round off his sweet defeat, is for them to move Feijóo's chair. Let them think about it coldly, because there was not a tsunami before, nor is this now a debacle. Expectations after the municipal elections were exaggerated and it was not taken into account that, although the return of bipartisanship is unquestionable, it has not yet been completed, neither on the left nor on the right. Question Feijóo in these circumstances? The worst mistake of the PP, yes, no matter how Bambi they see it, as an esteemed colleague says.

there is party. Héctor Gómez, former spokesperson for the socialist parliamentary group and Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, never stopped believing. There is a party —Gómez repeated to me, over and over again before the campaign, and during, both in telephone conversations and through WhatsApp—. There is a party, he insisted without ceasing to believe. Now, with the outcome on the table, it can be concluded that he was right, yes, but that he failed to say that the party he was referring to was the PSOE, with an organization capable of overcoming months of swimming against the current and with the bookmakers turning their backs on them.. The Socialists have a well-muscled party, without a doubt, but above all they have a general secretary made of unsinkable material. Sánchez is made of cork, which is why he floats with such skill over troubled waters, apocalyptic soundings or cycles that seem to have reached the end point.

The president rises again and again because there is always someone who rescues him. Years ago it was the militants. This time it was Vox. Only Vox and Feijóo's strategic low back pain, in the final stretch of the campaign, could shape Sánchez's penultimate resurrection. Saying. And done. However, the PSOE will not have it easy. The Sunday euphoria of the Minister of Finance (gesticulating without limit in Ferraz, to the point of distracting and taking away the prominence of the candidate's intervention) confirms that the Socialists feared a bump as big as Montero's agitation. Of course, the minister's birthday choreography does not match the smell of blockade that permeates the atmosphere, nor with the problem that such toxic arithmetic clearly draws.

The Socialists have also responded well in the Canary Islands, tying six deputies with the hypothetical favourite, the PP, and improving it with an army of senators. In May they won but lost. In July, barely two months later, the PSOE from the Canary Islands tied but won. Boards. Socialists and popular equal to six their contribution to the board of a country that awakens to the threat of falling back into the loop of electoral repetition. Except for Nueva Canarias (which had a presence and weight in Congress, and not anymore) everyone in the Islands has been reasonably happy. Sumar and Vox add an act to their respective groups and Coalition, even with only one parliamentarian, dreams of having a more or less visible role in the film that began shooting on the night of the twenty-third.

The Coalition promised not to participate in any agreement that has Vox as a necessary collaborator. Both in the regional and local ones, as well as in the general ones, that red line (or green, in this case) has been their mantra. With Vox not even in the corner. With Vox nothing. Hardened in a thousand battles, the writers of Coalition are good at being water. They always find a way. Officially, they will keep that commitment, but if circumstances knock on CC's door, they will always find a loophole to avoid the prophecy of not sharing a wagon with Vox. Perhaps they will do so by explaining that they meant that they would never reach an investiture agreement with the PP if the popular have Vox sitting on the Council of Ministers.

Not that way. Never. Never. Something different is that those of Santiago Abascal participate from outside, as a parliamentary support group. So yes, perhaps, perhaps, in the inauguration attempt of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Coalition could add its seat to facilitate the governability of the country without skipping the promised line —or not completely, at least—. Nor do the nationalists rule out aligning their vote with the PSOE in a hypothetical investiture of Sánchez.

In the mouth of the imminent CC deputy, Cristina Valido, the possibility of negotiating and agreeing on a favorable vote for the socialist candidate is equally solid. Of course, yes —Valido literally said—. It is one thing to govern with the PP in the Canary Islands and another different thing is to give up scratching something in the scenarios that have been opened; to which a third party could be added, the blockade, what a damn grace it would do to the Coalition —which this time added 114,718 votes—. This time Nueva Canarias (the Pedro Quevedo party, remembered as the one hundred and seventy-sixth deputy, with the permission of Ana Oramas) has been left out, opening for the thousandth time the debate in the planets of local nationalism on the opportunity to go hand in hand to Congress and the Senate.

An electoral repetition would delay (and in what way) the effective start of the legislature at the regional level. If a blockade scenario finally occurs in the ministries, cruising speed will not be reached until 2024, drawing the worst possible calendar. With the central Administration in minimal services, there is no way to pick up pace in the autonomous areas that depend for so many things on the General State Budget. It is a bad thing for the Canarian government that the country is submerged in months of interim, and as bad or worse for the pact that unites the CC and PP in the Islands would be that, breaking the forecasts, President Sánchez manages to tie up as many years in Moncloa, opening —if the re-election is consummated— a scenario of permanent tension in the Canary-State relations.

had departed. Sánchez has momentarily saved another match point —another one—. With the labyrinth that the polls have left, there is no autonomous community that is not waiting for a convulsed legislature to start or, where appropriate, to suffer the consequences of a blockade that leads to paralysis until next year. In the Canary Islands, one and the other, the Government and the opposition, the Coalition and the PP, along with the Socialists, take stock, aware that Sunday's results add difficulty to the difficulties that the four-year period that has begun to roll in the Islands brought in the backpack, yes, with four of the five senses pending how things are moving in Madrid now that the key to the legislature is in the hands of Carles Puigdemont —something like leaving the keys to your house and the alarm combination to the neighbor who cracked your car wheels or dumped their garbage bags on your landing—. It smells like a blockade, but the president, candidate and general secretary of the PSOE is made of cork. It floats, it resists, it sinks, but it returns to the surface, it rises again, once, and again, and again.

The president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, telephoned the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, last night to erase the idea that they will support his investiture, an arithmetically possible hypothesis, but completely unrealistic. The five Basque nationalist seats, added to the 136 for the PP, 33 for Vox, one for UPN and another for the Canary Islands Coalition, would suffice for the long-awaited absolute majority: 176. But the PNV —like the Canarian regionalists— yesterday reiterated its frontal rejection of Feijóo. “It is impossible. We have fixed our position 5,000 times. Feijóo has crossed a red line by having included the ultra-right in the institutions ”, settle sources from the nationalist leadership. It's a resounding no. They will not even sit down to negotiate with the PP.

The loud slam was communicated to Feijóo by Ortuzar yesterday after meeting his political leadership in Sabin Etxea, where they analyzed the disappointing electoral results of this 23-J. It is the second fiasco after 28-M for the PNV, which has set off alarm signals because Bildu eats the land and challenges its hegemony in the 2024 regional elections. On Sunday they were barely separated by 1,000 votes.

The truth is that the PNV was a victim of the sokatira game between Sánchez and Feijóo. PSOE and PP pulled hard on the rope of their voters and the Socialists took advantage of a large nationalist vote to clearly impose themselves. First Basque force 15 years later in generals, in the time of Zapatero. The PNV, which came from its best result in Congress in 2019, left 100,000 votes. Bildu continues to escalate rapidly: a technical draw in the Basque Country and one more seat in Navarra that confirms his triumph in Congress. Six deputies against five. More focus and power of influence after being the great protagonist of the pacts with Sánchez.

There is an unquestionable fact that explains the PNV's contempt for Feijóo. The ghost of Vox mobilized the Basque electorate on Sunday, which reacted against a turn to the right in the central government. The mere presence of Santiago Abascal's party in the equation scares the nationalist party. But the truth is that, although Vox was not necessary for the investiture, those from Ortuzar would have also given themselves 'mus'. Management sources have been warning for weeks that the signing of agreements in the town halls and communities after 28-M disqualifies Feijóo, who they see devastated by Vox.

Incompatible with Ayuso's “hard right”

In his opinion, the Galician leader of the PP has made “a trip to the hard right as an electoral tool”. Although they admit that “they probably had no other option” and share the blame with the PSOE, for their refusal to facilitate PP governments where they won, such as in Castilla y León. Feijóo is also accused of having been “the best head of advertising and propaganda for Bildu”. And there also emerges the figure of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who closed the candidacy of the PP in Bilbao in the municipal elections, and who came to brand the PNV as a racist party. All this, they insist, makes them incompatible.

The PNV shares an economic creed with the PP, and surely its approach for the coming months, with Europe cutting spending, will be more similar to that of Feijóo than that of Sánchez in Moncloa. But an abyss separates them in the ideological question with the Spanish right, beginning with the conception of the State, closer to the federal model advocated by the PSOE.. And they will once again take out before Sánchez their demand for a revision of the constitutional model.

Also in social issues a large gap has opened with respect to the PP. The PNV claims to be a “Christian-Democratic base party that knows how to evolve and has adapted to the times”. This explains why they were one of the unconditional supporters of the law of only yes is yes, which they defend as “correct as a whole, beyond the criminal mess”. Or Trans law. In fact, the fact that Feijóo promised to repeal the latter distanced them even more.

In recent months, from Genoa they have insisted a lot that Urkullu and Feijóo maintain a good relationship, thus fueling the hypothesis that an understanding with the PNV would be much easier. And it is true that they are united by years of shared management in two regions of the Atlantic corridor punished by the demographic winter and the abandonment of the State (France has just given up connectivity with the high-speed train). But that “cordial” relationship, as stressed from Vitoria, is far from political complicity. Since Feijóo led the PP, they have hardly exchanged any “courtesy calls” and an institutional meeting in Ermua a year ago on the occasion of the XXV anniversary of the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco. From there came a meeting with Ortuzar, last October, in which both leaders “confirmed notable ideological and programmatic differences”, although “also institutional respect between two parties accustomed to having government responsibilities”.. pure formalism.

And then, why was the PNV's support for Rajoy possible? In Sabin Etxea they remember that that move was possible “from a rebound, to the second”, after the institutional blockade of the PSOE and the electoral repetition of 2016. And although it also seemed impossible at the time due to its incompatibility with Ciudadanos, both ended up being preferred allies of the PP. The PNV took advantage of its decisive votes in Madrid to extract succulent agreements from Montoro, such as the renewal of the Basque quota, or an increase in pensions in extremis. They signed Budgets and a week later they supported Sánchez's motion of no confidence. In spite of everything, the relationship with Rajoy was, according to what the leadership of the nationalist party confess, the most profitable of all those they have had with the presidents of the Government of Spain. Better than with Zapatero, who they used to ignore the then socialist lehendakari, Patxi López. Arzalluz also congratulated himself on his day for having advanced in his interests more with Aznar than with Felipe González.

But those were other times. Now the PNV has a great electoral competitor, Bildu, who has been whitewashed for his political agreements with Sánchez, giving him an inconceivable role for Sabin Etxea. With the enthusiasm of Pablo Iglesias. And that is what reduces the margin for them to come to an understanding with the PP, a party that is still in low hours in the Basque Country —this Sunday it recovered its second seat, for Álava—, and to which the cadres and bases of the PNV attribute a certain heritage from Francoism. That is to say, neither sociologically it would explain itself well nor electorally would it rent a pact with the PP, with whom it would not join the Basque Government or the provincial councils.

Because internally, betting on a Feijóo government to the detriment of the PSOE would mean “suicide” for the nationalists, because it would break all their Basque institutional scaffolding. The PNV governs in coalition with the PSE all the important institutions: the Basque Government, the three provincial councils and the three capitals. And agreeing now with Feijóo would be a factor of enormous instability just at a time when Bildu is on his heels. In other words, the alternative to the PSE cannot be the PP by pure arithmetic, since they would not manage to govern any important institution together. The PNV, it must be remembered, governs the Guipúzcoa Provincial Council and the Vitoria City Council (with a PSE mayor) after the “free” support of the PP, to the detriment of Bildu.

The PNV suffers, in short, an electoral decline, while Bildu continues to rise, driven by the notoriety that Sánchez gives him by pivoting on them important laws such as Housing. It is true that already in 2011, the coalition prior to Bildu with which Batasuna returned to Congress, named Amaiur, surpassed the PNV in seats. But then he had a borrowed vote from many Basques who rewarded them for the long-awaited end of ETA. Now there is a paradigm shift, for many Basques, especially the youngest, Bildu is no longer contaminated by the terrorist past, it does not have Podemos as a real competitor in the Basque Country and it is wrapped in the social flag that brings thousands of supports beyond the independence movement.

The only respite for the PNV is that at this time there is no possible alternation of a pact to the left between the PSE and Bildu. Of course there will not be as long as Arnaldo Otegi continues to be the leader of the radical coalition, remembering his dark past of total collusion with ETA. A few more generations will have to pass before we see a PSE-Bildu government. Although the radical coalition was the first force in the autonomic ones, they will not govern. The understanding of the PNV and the socialists is solid. It goes back to 1986 until the Lizarra pact was signed between nationalists and ETA and dynamited everything. After the hiatus of the Government of Patxi López (2009-2012) with foreign support from the PP —Batasuna outlawed—, this stability agreement was resumed in 2016. and is in good health.

As if that were not enough, the PNV is also losing the myth of good management: erosion of public services, aggravated by the pandemic, waiting lists in health, educational strikes; In short, a growing social pressure that calls into question the image of a Basque oasis.

Faced with such signs of strong wear, Andoni Ortuzar's executive is now facing a process of internal renewal in search of the “generational change”. Nor is Iñigo Urkullu assured of his continuity after 12 years in office, the “longest-lived” lehendakari behind José Antonio Ardanza (1985-1999), they emphasize from the executive, where they do not hide the need for renewal. Ortuzar himself, architect together with Urkullu of the party's transition from the exalted sovereignty of the Ibarretxe Plan to the possibility that led them to be Rajoy's preferred partners, has internally transmitted his intention to withdraw.

And it is not that the PNV has many incentives to renew their vows with Sánchez, whom they have always mistrusted.. “It is not by word, it is not to be trusted”, they have been repeating these years from the Basque leadership. The PSOE has not fulfilled its investiture commitments. And he has left hair on the cat flap, which hurt the nationalist spokesman the most, such as the official secrets law or the gag law. But he continues to trust that he will be able to make profitable, vote by vote, his support for Sánchez, who will sell very dearly in another devilish legislature in Congress. “Strategic decisions” on the State model is what they will demand, said yesterday the nationalist leader Itxaso Atutxa.

Those of Arnaldo Otegi will try the same, who are already setting a course towards the Basque regional elections, scheduled for the spring of 2024. Otegi wants to be a candidate for lehendakari after overcoming his disqualification for belonging to ETA. Perhaps Bildu would do much better if he imitated Gerry Adams: the leader of the Irish party Sinn Féin, once the political arm of the IRA, retired in 2018 to make way for Mary Lou McDonald and in May 2022 they won a historic victory in the Northern Ireland elections. But his candidacy is, above all, glue for the complex world of radical Abertzale. The presence of those convicted of terrorism on the 28-M lists attests to this. And his inability to break with the past and condemn political violence, also.

In the Italian elections last autumn, the parties of the radical right obtained 35% of the votes. In France, in the first round of the last presidential elections, Le Pen obtained 23%. In Sweden, electoral support for the hard right is 21%; in Finland, 20%. In Spain, on Sunday, Vox obtained just over 12%.

Spain is one of the European countries in which this new form of conservative populism is less successful. There are several explanations for it.. One, of a moral nature, is the mostly progressive character of Spanish society, which accepts abortion (70%) or gay marriage (80%) and is comparatively little religious (40% say they are atheist or agnostic).. Another reason is historical: the revisionism in a positive key that a part of Vox makes of Francoism connects with a past that many Spaniards are not particularly proud of, or that scares them.. One last reason is electoral discipline: the PP is so deeply rooted in the territory, and has such a great capacity to square ideologically, mediatically, and electorally with conservative voters, that, here, a party to its right has a relatively low ceiling..

In all this there is some truth. But the lack of success of Vox at a time when the radical right is growing in almost all of Europe has another explanation: Vox is a party that is infinitely more clumsy and inexperienced than its European counterparts.. Above all, in the ideological. Most of these parties are increasingly focusing on a few ideological points. The main one is, by far, the rejection of immigration, especially Muslim immigration.. Second, and far behind, are moral questions.. But these, each party interprets them differently: in family matters, Brothers of Italy behaves like a true conservative party; while others, especially from the north of the continent, defend the gay flag and the new forms of family to contrast the tolerance of Christian countries with Islamic fundamentalism. Some emphasize the rural economy (Netherlands); others, in euroscepticism (Denmark) or in defense of the working classes (Le Pen).

But Vox has wanted to include in its ideological program, and in its DNA, grandiose theories in which the Spanish have no interest, such as the role of George Soros in financing progressive conspiracies, the military achievements of Spain in the 16th century and the supposed decline of the current West.. And their local charges have shown intransigent attitudes in aspects such as the literary programming of town theaters or the emphatic rejection of Gay Pride.. That makes for a wacky-looking party, or at least an unsympathetic one.. If she had focused on her three strengths—immigration, feminism, Catalonia—she could have been as successful as her European colleagues.. And, internally, it could simply be a more conservative party than the PP, with which to be able to form a parliamentary majority. But with these displays of excessive ideological ambition, which reflect the eccentricities of his intellectual environment, he has rather achieved the opposite: not only has he not been very successful, but he has also destroyed the chances of the right ruling in Spain..

prevent toggle

Because, right now, that is the role that Vox plays in Spanish democracy: to prevent there being an electorally viable alternative to the coalition between the left and Catalan and Basque nationalism. Of course, the merit of the electoral result is not his alone. It is also the case of a PP that came to the elections thinking that it did not need any more electoral program than repealing sanchismo and lowering taxes, that it ran a mediocre campaign and that it was not capable of transmitting a vision of Spain beyond vague Rajoyan ideas that might work in 2011, but certainly will not in 2023..

However, Vox has become so fond of scaring progressives that what it has achieved is that they mobilize, and with good reason, given the possibility that leaders like Buxadé, Ortega Smith or Abascal occupy positions of responsibility in a national government.. It has opted so much for the haughty and arrogant ways that even some liberals think twice before endorsing a coalition with a party that is as disinterested in management, and as addicted to political communication as Podemos.. In short, he has achieved that the polarization that Pedro Sánchez has placed at the center of his political strategy —approving bad laws, governing with partners contrary to the Constitution, and then having his voters forgive him because it would be worse to have Abascal as vice president— works.

The existence of a real and viable alternative to the Government in office is a measure of the quality of a democracy. It was not necessary to be a supporter of the right to think that the succession of a poorly managed pandemic, an uncomfortable coalition with Bildu, favors for ERC and the approval of badly conceived laws by Podemos could lead to a change of government. But Vox, with its effective mobilization of the leftist voter, has thwarted it. In a certain sense, this is very good news: it prevents Spain from joining the wave of governments with the presence of the radical right. And it shows how little support many of his disastrous ideas have in our society. But it is also a problem: Vox is not going to give up its ideology, let alone its existence. But as long as it exists, the PP will not govern Spain. And the lack of an alternative to the current coalition, neither for the future nor hypothetical, but real and viable, is indeed a problem.

Pedro Sánchez has ordered his team to pass the ball after 23-J. Yield the initiative to Alberto Núñez Feijóo so that he can portray himself isolated with Vox. Allow time to run during the month of August, encapsulating themselves without picking up the phones, so that the rest of the formations “analyze and rest the results”. That each one gauge which side they want to be on, with the dilemma of positioning themselves with “involution” or “advance”, summarized in Ferraz. An attempt to return the pressure on the nationalist and pro-independence bloc, thus hoping to lower the price of the investiture. Mainly, the party of Carles Puigdemont (JxCAT), whose abstention will be essential to continue leading Moncloa. At the executive meeting held this Monday, Sánchez denied the scenario of a blockade and was “sure” that “this democracy will find the formula for governability”. He did not give any more clues, but it is assumed that the numbers to be repeated, if he got ahead with a high price, would draw a more unstable legislature than the current one..

If a coalition government is formed between the PSOE and Sumar, with the support of the investiture of the entire nationalist and independence bloc, Sánchez would have no room for variable geometry or for carrying out budgets or organic laws without the help of all of them, including Junts. Or what is the same, the times of the legislature and the red button to detonate it would be in the hands of any of these partners. A block, moreover, not at all homogeneous, with crossed interests and in electoral competition with each other.

On the one hand, the PNV with EH Bildu, who will also face regional elections next year. The hegemony of the PNV is at stake, touched after these generals by the surprise in seats of the party of Arnaldo Otegi. The electoral context usually hinders the relationship of the partners with the Government, marking greater distances or raising the clash between them. On the other hand, the competition between ERC and JxCAT, with the former in sharp decline after 28-M and this 23-J and without finishing making profitable their strategy of possibility against the rupturist of Puigdemont's.

In Sumar, the internal cohesion of its parliamentary group is not guaranteed either, with the five Podemos deputies marking their own line, from more maximalist positions and claiming their autonomy. This same Monday, the party leader and deputy elected by Sumar, Ione Belarra, blamed Yolanda Díaz for losing 700,000 votes for “making Podemos and feminism invisible.”. Through a recorded video broadcast on social networks, he criticized a strategy that “has not worked” and defended that Spain “has gained time, but it is not enough”..

The former secretary general, Pablo Iglesias, warned for his part that the five deputies of Podemos will answer to his leadership. Five deputies who could distance themselves from Sumar's voting discipline, adding more uncertainty to governability. Iglesias himself already advanced during an interview in RAC1 that the purple representatives would be “essential for there to be a progressive coalition government and, probably, they are also very important with forces that represent the plurinationality of the State”.

The governability of a hypothetical coalition Executive between PSOE and Sumar, tied to the independence and nationalist bloc in Congress, would also be conditioned by the investiture agreements that are sealed and their subsequent materialization. These formations have been raising the price of their support, starting with ERC. Unlike in 2019, for Sánchez the abstention of the Republicans is not enough, but rather he needs their vote in favor. The conditions set for this by the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, go through ending the fiscal deficit that Catalonia is dragging, the transfer of Cercanías and advancing towards self-determination.

The price that JxCAT has put on the table this Monday for its essential abstention goes through the maxim of “amnesty” and “self-determination”. Without opening the door to these demands, which the PSOE always rejected by considering them outside the Constitution, the General Secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, assumed that “abstention” from his formation in an eventual investiture by Sánchez “is not a scenario”.. Even if the formation finally fit its demands into a dialogue table, like the last ERC legislature, it would always have in its power to leave the Executive in a minority, preventing governability, if its expectations were not fulfilled.

The challenge to guarantee stability in a legislature with these dependencies is more similar to that faced by the first Sánchez government that emerged from the motion of no confidence than to the current coalition. Added to the foreseeable tensions is the fact that the PP will have an absolute majority in the Upper House. The popular ones will be able to return the laws to Congress, such as budgets, lengthening the processing process.

If from Sumar they have chosen to speed up the times, with the claim to the PSOE to open a negotiation to form a coalition government, as well as exploring a dialogue with JxCAT through the leader of the communes Jaume Asens, Ferraz's strategy goes through the opposite. Postpone any type of contact, stay out of the noise of the days immediately after the elections and let time draw a better composition of the place. One of its assets is that the pro-independence formations understand the message of the vote given to the PSOE. That is, that to recover it in some regional elections they could not be placed in blocking positions.

In reference to the results in Catalonia, the party leadership calls attention to the fact that both JxCAT and ERC must reflect, because “a constitutionalist party [the PSC] adds more than all the independence movement”. Another trick for the Socialists would have to do with guaranteeing that both Republicans and post-convergents obtain their own group in Congress if the Socialists revalidate themselves as President and maintain the progressive majority in this body.. A pact that would open the way to negotiations for the investiture. None of these forces meets the requirement set out in the regulation of having more than 15% of the votes in the constituencies in which they appear, but the final decision rests with the Congress Table.

Former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who throughout the campaign coordinated his messages and appearances with Ferraz, paved the way this Monday by defending the dialogue with JxCAT in an interview on La Sexta. Always with the red line of not agreeing to hold a referendum, he even associated the integration of JxCAT into governance as an “opportunity” to integrate all sectors of the independence movement in a framework of dialogue and coexistence that avoids turning back to a confrontation scenario. The story begins to be filed to rehearse an investiture as a prelude to a hectic legislature, while the negotiation times are delayed so that a rejection of these formations to Feijóo is staged beforehand.

A 58-year-old man died this Monday in a house fire in the town of Santa Pola (Alicante), as confirmed by the Emergency Information and Coordination Center (CICU)..

The accident occurred this Monday around 4:35 p.m., when the CICU received a notice of a fire in a house on Avenida Salamanca in Santa Pola. To the scene, the CICU has mobilized a unit of the Emergency Medical Assistance Service (SAMU) and another of Basic Life Support (SVB).

The SAMU medical team has performed resuscitation and stabilization maneuvers on the man, who had severe burns and smoke inhalation. The professionals have begun his transfer, but on the way to the hospital he has died.

The Ministry of Health has transferred to the population a guide of recommendations to avoid drowning and injuries in aquatic environments and enjoy a safe bath this summer. Through a statement, Health has recalled that drowning is “an important public health problem” and has stressed that aquatic incidents can be prevented “with appropriate behavior on beaches, swimming pools and other bathing places.”.

According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019 an estimated 236,000 people died from drowning worldwide.. According to the latest consolidated data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 2021 510 people died in Spain (419 men and 91 women) as a result of submersion and drowning in an aquatic environment.

In Spain, the highest drowning rates per 100,000 inhabitants occur in the oldest age groups of 80-84 years (2.9), 75-79 years (2.62) and 70-74 years (1.75), followed by the groups of 20 to 24 years (1.75).

Health points out that the consequences of drowning are “highly preventable” through measures such as “installing barriers to control access to water in swimming pools and aquatic environments, teaching school-age boys and girls to swim and water safety skills (meaning of flags and signals, use of life jackets, action against rip currents, basic rescue and resuscitation maneuvers, etc.), or training people in the environment in safe rescue and resuscitation.”.

Prevention: Recommendations for a safe bathroom

The Ministry has pointed to several risk factors related to drowning, such as risk behaviors, moments of relaxation in the supervision of minors, bathing in unsupervised areas, the consumption of alcohol and other drugs near or in the water, medical conditions such as epilepsy and tourists unfamiliar with the particularities of local waters.. Likewise, they remember that special attention must be paid to both the elderly and minors..

The best prevention in the case of minors is “monitoring, teaching them to swim and educating them to respect safety regulations”. “Drownings occur quickly and silently, most of the time the victim has been out of sight for less than five minutes.. Therefore, keep an eye on them at all times when they are in the water or playing near it and do not delegate this responsibility to an older child.”.

In addition, they advise not to leave a baby or young child alone at any time in a bathtub or inflatable pool: “A baby can drown in just a few centimeters of water”.

Other advice from the Ministry of Health is that the pool has a lifeguard; that children cannot freely access the pool; o avoid running around the edge of the pool or playing push people. “If you don't know how to swim, or don't know how to swim well, wear a life jacket when bathing and always wear it when practicing a water sport. Inflatable floats are not recommended,” they add in this regard..

On the beach, they urge you to respect the flags: “Never bathe if it is red, and with yellow it is dangerous: bathe only up to the waist and with caution. Also, bathe in beaches with surveillance and always respect the instructions of the lifeguards”.

On the other hand, Health asks not to overestimate the physical condition or the ability to swim: “In the sea, if you get tired or have difficulty returning, swim on your back moving your legs only until you get close to the shore. Lastly, if you feel you are being pulled by a current, swim parallel to the beach and once you have left the beach, swim towards the shore.”.

In addition, they recommend not bathing in areas where bathing is prohibited; and always bathe in company, particularly if it is an elderly person or with a health problem. “Swimming at night is very dangerous, if something happened to him, no one would be able to see him.. Remember that alcohol consumption decreases the ability to react to danger or can lead to adopting risky behaviors,” they add.

Finally, they affirm that diving headfirst from a great height, such as bridges, trees or balconies, “can cause very serious injuries.” “Before jumping in, make sure there is enough depth and there are no obstacles. Especially in the case of cloudy water. Mats and other inflatable objects should be used with caution, as they can drag us in quickly,” they conclude.

The Murcia Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has requested sentences totaling 13 and a half years in prison and 36 special disqualification for employment or public office for the former regional president Pedro Antonio Sánchez (PP) in what is known as the Nursery case of alleged illegal construction of a children's center and another for women when he was mayor of Puerto Lumbreras.

The prosecutor's indictment, to which Efe has had access, indicates that Sánchez allegedly committed various irregularities around these projects that could constitute the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, falsehood in public documents and against land use planning.. According to the public ministry, the former regional president allegedly made verbal orders, divided projects and approved them without complying with the formalities required by law..

The prosecutor's office added that it would have incurred in the continued crime of falsifying a public document in the act of rethinking the works, the issuance of certifications and the request for reports for the extension of deadlines referring to the subsidies received. It would have incurred in embezzlement of public funds for the alleged payment of extra costs and payment of invoices that would not respond to work actually carried out and in an offense against land use planning for approving construction projects above the maximum buildable area.

Along with Pedro Antonio Sánchez, the accidental secretary of the consistory, the architect hired by it, the controller and several municipal technicians and managers of construction companies, among others, also appear as defendants..

The former mayor of Don Benito José Luis Quintana (PSOE), one of the promoters of the municipal merger project with the neighboring town of Villanueva de la Serena, has renounced his act of mayor after 16 years of municipal public activity, eight as mayor and others as councilor. Quintana, who has been in charge of the Don Benito consistory between 2015 and 2023, lost the Mayor's office after the elections last May.

Despite the fact that the PSOE was the most voted list, a pact “between losers”, as he said this Monday in relation to the PP and Siempre Don Benito agreement, prevented him from maintaining the municipal command rod. At a press conference, the already exedil has asserted that both as mayor and councilor (2007-2015) he has always worked “without rest” in defense of the interests of the residents of Don Benito.

“I understand that I can no longer continue contributing the same,” added Quintana, who has acknowledged that in these 16 years he has taken “excessive time” from his family. Accompanied by leaders and members of the party at the local level, he has stated that he has decided to “step aside and leave the front line of municipal politics”. However, he has affirmed that he will continue as general secretary of the calabazones socialists as long as the organic deadlines are met and “thus guarantee a calm process and renewal of the structure of our party at the local level.”.

He has assured that he is leaving with “the satisfaction of closing a stage being the political party with the most votes, although a pact between losers has not allowed us to govern”. He has also said that he is leaving “with a clear conscience and with clean hands”, but above all with the “confidence and guarantee” that people who are “sufficiently prepared and capable of leading these four years of opposition” remain at the head of the socialist group..

The leader of the calabazones socialists has added that a stage is opening in which the PSOE must “safeguard the interests of the residents of Don Benito” after the agreement between Siempre Don Benito and PP, whose “sole objective was the no to the merger and throw the socialists out of the town hall”, according to Quintana. In this regard, he has reiterated that the PSOE “is the only party” that continues to bet on the merger between Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena “as the best guarantee of the progress of the following generations.”