Focus today on Spain with Juan Jose Dorado, Spanish correspondent in Paris. With details on the last elections of July 23 in Madrid, completely under the radar, notably due to the Rubiales affair.
Spain is dominated by two big news stories today, the Luis Rubiales affair and the bad weather. But there is one piece of information that has gone completely under the radar this summer, and that is the latest early legislative elections on July 23.
franceinfo: Tell us who won in these last elections, because we don’t understand much?
Juan Jose Dorado: Because you remember that there were elections at the end of July, but as of today, we do not yet have an elected president, the equivalent for you of the Prime Minister, because the leader of state in Spain, he is the king. And so, the one who won the elections is the one who has the most deputies, the greatest number of votes, the People’s Party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Conservative Party, which had 137 deputies in the Spanish Assembly, and behind it, the Socialist Party of President Pedro Sanchez, which had only 121 deputies.
So, technically, the one who won is Mr. Feijoo. Except that on today’s date, the king asked Mr. Feijoowho is the one with the most deputies, to try to form a government, because he must go before the Spanish deputies, and it will happen on September 26 and 27 where he will ask the deputies for investiture.
Except that the Spanish system requires you to have an absolute majority in the first round, to be President and he will not have it. And so, 48 hours later, on September 29, there will be a second Spanish vote. HASWith a relative majority, it should be fine, except that the left bloc today has 171 deputies, the right bloc 172 deputies.
The right won?
But if you add the two, you will see that there are seven deputies missing to reach the 350 deputies, these seven deputies are those of ““Junts per Catalunya” (Together for Catalonia, Catalan independence political party formed on July 25, 2020) who will decide who will govern in Spain, the seven Catalan deputies, the separatists, those of Carles Puigdemont, qwho left Spain and who is being prosecuted by the Spanish courts. It is he who, if he votes against Mr. Feijoowhich is certain on the 26th, the 27th, and even the 29th, he will vote against, so Mr. Feijoo cannot be invested and therefore, the king will propose to Mr. Sanchez to try to form a government. And that’s where it hurts.
Because Mr. Puigdemont is asking for a general amnesty for the Catalan separatists being prosecuted, is that it?
That’s it, at a press conference in Brussels, since he cannot return to Spain, otherwise he will be arrested, Mr. Puigdemont asked for a general amnesty – after the pardon of those who were convicted, who was granted some time ago by Mr. Sanchez – for all those who are being prosecuted for having participated in the calling of the illegal referendum in Spain in 2017, which is, a priori, impossible to do under the Spanish Constitution. Perhaps not for Mr. Pedro Sanchez…
Which means that the seven Catalan deputies are not in the left bloc. For now, they are satellites. We have 171 for the left, 172 for the right. There are seven, who will decide the future of Spain?
But the problem is that the constitutional clock, from September 27, will be started, and a government will be needed within two months. If within two months, that is to say on November 27, there is no President inaugurated, dissolution of the chambers, and new calling of elections for January 14.
And we remember that at the moment, the European presidency is Spain
Because you remember that the presidency is Spanish, because you who know Europe well, you are aware that since Mr. Sanchez called the elections at the end of July, the Spanish presidency has been completely sabotaged, it is not yet finished. Perhaps, indeed, by December 30, December 31, we will be able to make a splash and show that we were at the head of the presidency of the European Union. So the Spanish government depends on Mr. Puigdemont.