Election set for November 10 as attempts to form Spanish government collapse

Alejandro López

Five months after the inconclusive April 28 general elections, Spain will hold new elections on November 10. Spanish King Felipe VI declared that Acting Prime Minister and Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez had failed to secure enough support to be confirmed as premier.

On Tuesday, Sánchez announced: “It has been impossible to complete the mandate given to us by the Spanish people on April 28.” Attacking the opposition parties, he added: “They have made it impossible for us. There is no majority in Congress that guarantees the formation of a government, which pushes us to a repeat election on November 10.”

Yesterday, in parliament, Sánchez accused the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, of “dogmatism,” Popular Party (PP) leader Pablo Casado of “lacking sense of state” and Citizens leader Albert Rivera of “irresponsibility.” Sánchez said that “they have not accepted” the result of the elections of April. He added that Spain needs “stability” and “moderation.”

Two years after the violent police crackdown on the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, Sánchez also warned the separatist Republican Left of Catalonia that he could again invoke Article 155 to remove the democratically-elected regional Catalan government “if you attempt to violate the Constitution.”

These elections would be the fourth in four years. In 2015, the grip of the two main parties that have ruled Spain since the end of the fascist Franco dictatorship in 1978, the PSOE and the right-wing PP, collapsed. Both of these parties have imposed brutal austerity measures since the 2008 Wall Street crash and global economic crisis. Since then, every successive election has produced a hung parliament.

The main opposition parties reacted not by welcoming Sánchez’s failure to hold onto power, but by denouncing the PSOE for failing to assemble a parliamentary majority that could form a functioning government. Casado (PP) accused Sánchez of wanting new elections “since the start,” referring to expectations of an uptick in votes for the PSOE in upcoming elections. Rivera, for his part, called on Casado and the PP to try to form an alternative government after the November elections.

Podemos asked Sánchez to “Clarify why you don’t want to rule with us.” Podemos deputy spokeswoman Ione Belarra added that the PSOE was “on the way to an electoral replay” because “their gurus tell them that they will win a few more seats.” She also speculated that the PSOE wants to “soften” the leader of Citizens, Albert Rivera, possibly to form a governmental alliance with his party.

These events mark a new milestone in the disintegration of the traditional political set-up in Europe. It takes place as the ruling class in the UK faces its most severe crisis since World War II over Brexit and is preparing for social unrest following a potential no-deal Brexit.

Driving all the major parties is their fear of the working class, with mass strikes in Portugal, the “yellow vest” protests in France and a global upsurge of the class struggle.