By CIARÁN GILES Associated Pres
MADRID (AP) — Spain looked set Monday to endure many more months of political uncertainty after the country's fourth election in as many years reflected a widening political chasm between parties on the left and the right.
After Sunday's national vote, no party has a clear mandate to govern and a far-right party has become a major parliamentary player in Spain for the first time in decades.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's left-of-center Socialists won the most seats — 120 — but fell far short of a majority in the 350-seat chamber and will need to make deals on several fronts if they are to govern.
Right-wing voters, meanwhile, flocked to the far-right Vox party, giving it 52 seats to become the parliament's third-largest party, behind the Socialists and the conservative Popular Party, which surged back to win 88 seats.
On the streets of Madrid, many people were scratching their heads over what would happen next.
"I think we are worse than before, we are more divided," said Antonio Prados, a 44-year-old police officer. "I don't know, there's a possibility to form a government, but I don't know how they will come up with the numbers."
Sánchez called the election after he failed to gain enough support to form a government after the previous election in April — but won three fewer seats Sunday than seven months ago.
Andrew Dowling, an expert on contemporary Spanish politics at Cardiff University in Wales, said Sánchez's plan to come out with a stronger mandate had backfired.
"The Spanish Socialist party made a major miscalculation in calling new elections," Dowling said in a telephone interview.
Adding to his woes, his closest allies, the left-wing United We Can party, fell from 42 to 35 seats.
Sunday's ballot also went badly for the right-of-center Citizens party, which captured just 10 seats in parliament, down from 57 seats in April. Party leader Albert Rivera quit Monday after the debacle but was not the only person hurt by it.
Sánchez, who will struggle to form a government, has "fewer options because of the collapse of Citizens," said Dowling.
Disputes over the independence movement in the northeastern region of Catalonia — Spain's most serious political issue in decades — will continue to fester, with three Catalan separatist parties winning a combined 23 seats on Sunday.
On Monday, Catalan radicals resumed their protests by blocking a major highway border pass between France and Spain and promising to keep it cut off for three days.
In his victory speech, Sánchez promised again to "obtain a progressive government." His exact plans may become clearer when he meets his party's leadership later Monday.
"Sánchez fails in his plebiscite and makes government even more difficult," was the front-page headline in Spanish daily El Mundo.
The next step will be for parliamentarians to select a house speaker in the coming weeks and for talks then between King Felipe VI and party leaders to begin so that one of them, most likely Sánchez, will be called on to try to form a government.
Right-wing populist and anti-migrant leaders across Europe, meanwhile, celebrated Vox's strong showing.
Marine Le Pen, who heads France's National Rally party, congratulated Vox leader Santiago Abascal, saying his impressive work "is already bearing fruit after only a few years."
Vox's surge and the gains by the Popular Party capitalized on Spanish nationalist sentiment stirred up by the Socialists' handling of the secessionist conflict in the northeastern region of Catalonia.
Many right-wingers were also not pleased by the Socialist government's exhumation of late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco's remains last month from his gargantuan mausoleum so he could no longer be exalted in a public place.
Many Catalans have been angered by the Supreme Court's prison sentences last month for nine Catalan politicians and activists who led a 2017 drive for the region's independence. The ruling triggered massive daily protests in Catalonia that left more than 500 people injured.
Capital Economics, a London-based research company, said it expected no short-term economic difficulties after Sunday's vote because Spain's economy has remained healthy despite the past four years of political gridlock.
But it warned Monday that deep, long-term economic reforms are needed to keep Spain competitive in its labor markets and pension system, and deadlock has kept those efforts on hold.
___
Helena Alves in Madrid and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this story.
Other articles from Hispanic Outlook:
Hispanics’ Deadly Response To Opioid Bias
Opioids are sometimes necessary to treat Patient pain, but Physicians are now being cautioned about prescribing them. In an article entitled “How Racial Inequity Is Playing Out in the Opioid Crisis,” by Jenae Addison for Health Magazine, it is noted that the stereotyping of Patients of color influences the number of prescriptions dispensed. Addison quotes Kenneth Leonard, director of the Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions at the University of Buffalo explaining, “There is a bias issue there in terms of either believing [minorities are] more likely to be substance abusers or they can endure more pain.” The result is while overprescribing opioids is the most recent scourge in America’s war on drugs, under prescribing opioids to Hispanics is contributing to more and more addiction and death in those communities of…
Chi-Chi Rodríguez’s Youth Foundation
As another academic year begins at his public-private school in Clearwater, Florida, this 83-year-old golfer often thinks about his childhood friend. They both grew up in Puerto Rico. As teenagers, they became very close and eventually played on the same amateur, baseball team on the island. One was a talented, right-handed pitcher while the other – a pinch-runner – was an agile ballplayer who always hustled around the base path. The pitcher’s name was Juan Antonio Rodríguez, who one day became an acclaimed golfer where millions around the world still recognize him by his childhood nickname: “Chi-Chi.” Growing up in Puerto Rico, the pinch-runner also had a nickname too. His family and close friends called him “Momen.” But today, millions around the world recall his extraordinary life and legacy. He was called “The Great One,” “Arriba” and “Humanitarian,” but…
More than 400 youngsters began lining up at 8 a.m. and remained in line until noon as the heat descended upon the Retiro park in Madrid, Spain. They weren’t waiting for some concert or latest video game on sale. Instead, they were on line to meet one of more than 1,800 authors who were signing books at Madrid’s historic book fair, La Feria del Libro de Madrid, in late spring from May 31 until June 16. “We are super happy to be able to have the success that we have had. The book has returned, and the people are very happy,” the fair’s director Manuel Gil told me in Spanish with a contagious passion. “The weight of paper is important, and, in the end, people want something physical, and they want that direct relationship with the author.” As an author myself, with my own novel, “NIÑA DUENDE: UN VIAJE DEL ESPÍRITU,” translated to Spanish and with…
5 Latino Authors You Should Be Reading Now
(AP)(THE CONVERSATION) You likely recognize that the depiction of Latin American immigrants in politics today – as a menacing mass of recalcitrant Spanish-speaking invaders – is overwhelmingly negative. What you may not know is that stereotypes suggesting that Latin Americans represent a threat to United States culture are not just morally repugnant – they’re also historically inaccurate. Spanish-language literature actually predates the Puritans’ writing in English by nearly a century. As my research reveals, many renowned Latin American writers actually produced some of their finest work while living in the United States. Latina and Latino writers have made exceptional contributions to American literary history. For a fresh take on what it means to be a Latina or Latino in the U.S. today, check out these five…
Place your job ad in our classified page on the HO print & digital Edition
