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San Sebastian / AFP
Spain’s Basque country and Galicia went to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that may help unblock the long-lasting national political paralysis.
The country is stuck in limbo, run by a government without full powers following two inconclusive elections which the conservative Popular Party (PP) won without an absolute majority, and which have seen parties
unable to reach any coalition deal.
As such, mainstream parties are watching the regional elections closely to see if they lose ground to upstarts or nationalist groupings, and none more so than the Socialist party (PSOE), which polls said would fare badly.
A poor showing — following bad results in December’s general election and again in a June repeat vote — may prompt the party’s dissenting “barons”, or regional presidents, to push party leader Pedro Sanchez out.
“If we don’t have a good score, they will use that to try to overthrow Pedro Sanchez,” a source close to the Socialist leader, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
Sanchez is unpopular among many “barons” who think the party should help put an end to Spain’s nine-month deadlock by admitting defeat, allowing a right-wing coalition government led by acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to come to power.
Sanchez, however, refuses to do so.
The PSOE voted against a Rajoy-led government in a parliamentary vote of confidence earlier this month, and is attempting to negotiate a left-wing coalition alternative with arch-rival Podemos, the far-left anti-austerity party.
But a weak result could put an end to this, either forcing Sanchez out or pressuring him into allowing the right-wing coalition government through by abstaining in another vote of confidence.
Polls ahead of Saturday’s vote indicated that in the northwestern region of Galicia, the Socialists would lose their second place to the En Marea coalition that includes Podemos, while the ruling PP is expected to win again.
In the northern Basque Country, the PSOE was forecast to lose ground to Podemos and possibly score its worst ever result in the lush green
region on the Atlantic coast.
‘Domino effect’
Barcelona-based daily newspaper El Periodico said in an editorial that the polls would “have a domino effect on Spanish politics” and put an end “to the endless game of chess that the major Spanish parties are playing”.
Polling stations opened at 9:00 am (0700 GMT), and many voters
expressed frustration at the inability of politicians to form a national
government.
“We are making fools of ourselves,” said Mercedes Solana, 61, a public servant, as she cast her ballot in the fashionable Basque Atlantic resort of San Sebastian.
“No one reaches an agreement, everyone looks after themselves, they don’t talk.”
Elections in the Basque country have an added significance as residents seek to turn the page on past
violence by ETA separatists.
The last regional elections in 2012 came just a year after the armed group declared a permanent ceasefire following four decades of shootings and bombings.
ETA is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in their campaign for an independent homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France, while militias close to the police are accused of some 150 anti-ETA killings.
This time, memories of the violence are slowly fading, although the desire for autonomy remains strong.
The Basque country’s ruling, moderate nationalist PNV party is expected to win again, though without an absolute majority, followed by the more radical, separatist EH Bildu grouping.