The People's Party (PP) has prevailed over the Socialists (PSOE) among Spanish voters in the European elections held this Sunday by a difference of four percent, a margin which is undoubtedly significant. PP leader Feijóo's victory was not a resounding one but neither was it the technical draw that Pedro Sánchez dreamed of. The Spanish legislature has gained one further point of complication in the already impossible obstacle course faced by legislative projects. We will have to keep a close watch on the moves which Feijóo and Sánchez might make in the coming days. In Catalonia, the Catalan Socialists (PSC) complete a virtuous cycle of four consecutive first-place elections - the Spanish, Catalan, municipal and European polls - and it is clear, once again, that while Together for Catalonia (Junts) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) are busy fighting each other, the Socialists are getting to work and their network of power and influence is becoming larger.
Although, during these last few days, many thought that Feijóo could himself become an addition to the list of PP corpses and that the presidency of the Spanish conservative party would be left vacant, the Galician politician has emerged with a certain dignity. He will have to keep rowing hard if he wants to reach the Moncloa government palace one day, because far from Vox losing support, Abascal's far-right party has continued to grow after the breath of fresh air it obtained in the Catalan election result. The arithmetic victory of the PP gives it 22 MEPs against the 20 of the Socialists, but the extremists of Vox also gain two more parliamentarians - reaching six - and the party of the ultra agitator Alvise Pérez, Se Acabó la Fiesta, enters the European chamber with three seats. What is beyond all discussion is that the current PP is unable to reunite the entire right under its acronym, as José María Aznar did in his day. This goal has only been achieved by Isabel Díaz Ayuso in Madrid.
Pedro Sánchez, with the entire electoral cycle now closed, must decide how he is going to govern, since the parliamentary majority of the legislature has been damaged on both the right and the left. Junts continues to make it clear that its voting support in Congress is conditional on the abstention of Salvador Illa in the investiture of Carles Puigdemont, something that the Socialists are adamantly opposed to. But, in addition, on the left, Yolanda Díaz's invention of Sumar has fallen apart, after being left on practically equal terms with Podemos. The former have taken three seats, and the latter, two. If they do not reach agreement, the future of the space on the left of the PSOE is rather bleak.
Pedro Sánchez must decide how he is going to govern, since the parliamentary majority of the legislature has been damaged on both the right and the left
The four largest Catalan parties will have very few hours to analyze the results since this very Monday afternoon they have the election of the Bureau of the Catalan Parliament. The Socialists won by a very wide margin with 30.6% of the votes, far above Junts's 18.0%, ERC's 14.8% and the PP's 13.8%. The PSC prevailed in Barcelona and Tarragona; Junts in Lleida and Girona. We will see what conclusions the four parties draw since, depending on what they end up doing, especially the PP, the speaker's position of the chamber could be tilted one way or the other. It will be interesting to see if the PP have been seduced by the siren songs of Salvador Illa or, on the contrary, they decide to distance themselves from the Socialists, thinking of possible moves with Junts in Madrid. Depending on how it ends, it is most likely that the speaker's position will fall on the side of the PSC or Junts - ERC permitting - a decision that is not minor since it affects the order in which candidates for investiture as president of the Generalitat are heard, and whether or not to designate a candidate.
The results achieved this Sunday by Junts and ERC are not good. Junts falls from three European deputies to one and have no reason to be satisfied. On the other hand, it is true that they finished second in votes, but almost 13 points behind the Socialists. It is beginning to be urgent to create a doctrinal body that allows the party to be recognizable by the electorate beyond whoever heads the list. It does not make much sense that Puigdemont's message in the Catalan elections last May had a strong flavour of Convergència and the opposite happened in the European elections. ERC, for its part, retains its MEP but its situation is not much better than a month ago. It also has a lot of work ahead to return to its former level of results.
The elections have already had consequences as soon as the polls closed in France and Belgium. On the other side of the Pyrenees, president Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called a general election, even before the election results were announced. In Belgium, the prime minister has resigned.