"The left, in general, is in a state of confusion"
The right is very pleased with Sánchez's decision to call a snap general election.
(Abascal (Vox) celebrated Sánchez’s decision to call a snap general election)
The headline quote today comes from a statement published by Alberto Garzón, the leader of United Left and the current Minister of Consumer Affairs in Spain, this morning on his Twitter account: “Many progressive governments have been lost. In short, the balance is terrible”.
He concludes, several long paragraphs later, that it is best for everyone to join in with Sumar, Yolanda Díaz's project, as they all stare down the barrel of the immediate general elections called by Pedro Sánchez yesterday, surprising everyone. If the boss of the pary thinks that, that another party is better, why does a once powerful United Left still exist?
What is left of Podemos is also running straight into the arms of Yolanda Díaz. "I want to inform you that we are already working to give the progressive citizens of this country the news they have for so long been waiting for, that this political space can run in these elections together and we can win," Ione Belarra (Podemos) announced yesterday.
The contorted rhetoric means that Yolanda Díaz is the new boss on the far-left in Spain. She only announced her party in April.
The leadership of Ciudadanos meets today to decide if they are even going to bother to stand at these general elections or not, given the disastrous results on Sunday, when they went to zero seats, nada, niente, rien, in all the regional parliaments where they ran.
As we had been writing and warning for a year or so, this was obviously going to happen because the party lost its way at a strategic and ideological level a long time ago, so the sensible thing to do at this point would be to give up completely and at least let voters choose between options that are going to be minimally useful to them in the new parliament.
The right is delighted with the new general elections becuase for them, the sooner Spaniards vote at the national level, the sooner Sánchez leaves office.
"Spain, in my opinion, in our opinion, wants to turn the page, wants to start a new phase," Feijóo (PP) said yesterday. The path chosen by the electorate on Sunday is now "unstoppable", he thought, and then asked for "the trust of citizens to become the next Prime Minnister of Spain".
"The snap general election is the only positive news that Pedro Sánchez has announced in the last four years," announced Abascal (Vox), smiling.
"The disaster of the left that inherited the energy of the 15-M movement (Spain’s occupy Wall Street), is enormous," writes El País in its editorial, adding that Sánchez's main objective in calling early elections is to mobilise the "progressive electorate" against the threat of a national coalition government between conservatives and the far-right.
El Mundo sees a Prime Minister "faithful to his instinct for survival" trying at the last minute to avoid "the creation of a possible [leadership] alternative within the PSOE". Spain "sees itself prey to the designs of a single man who conceives of politics and the democratic state as a permanent tactical game".
"On July 23, we will get the final result but it seems very unlikely that the sociological transformation that manifested in Sunday’s results can be reversed”, writes ABC, asking the PP and Vox to adopt an attitude of "extraordinary responsibility" and "intelligence" so as not to spoil the obvious opportunity before them with "an untimely conflict" in the coming weeks.
The left is weakened and in chaos, the center shattered and apathetic, the right enthusiastic and hopeful. Such is Sánchez’s strategic master move.
Thanks for reading. Subscribe now:
🔥 Understand the stories changing Spain better
📝 All the articles
💪 Guarantee this independent analysis & commentary