What are the five parties selling voters for the 2019 general election in Spain?
(14/04/2019) Do any of the party leaders hold the key to solving Spaniards' problems, or is the country heading towards political stalemate like in 2016?
(Original published: Apr 14, 2019, 11:50 am)
Pablo Iglesias: "take back control of our public resources"
Pedro Sánchez: "protect public pensions" in the Constitution
Albert Rivera: "I don't want to be a bad news politician"
Pablo Casado: "let's end this demographic winter"
Santiago Abascal: "patriotism is useful for negotiating internationally"
Each of Spain's main parties chose a different space and different messages for the start of this general election campaign, from a street-level rally in Las Palmas for Pablo Iglesias to more traditional indoor environments for Pablo Casado in Álava and Pedro Sánchez in Castellón, as well a very excited audience for Santiago Abascal in Oviedo or a sunny beach setting for Albert Rivera in Málaga.
What did the leaders talk about? What ideas and narratives do they want to sell voters before April 28? Does any of the five have the key to solving Spaniards' problems? Here is a detailed analysis of the five opening speeches.
PODEMOS, PABLO IGLESIAS
In Las Palmas (Canary Islands), Pablo Iglesias proposed, in his well-known angry rally tone, the re-nationalisation of Spain's energy sector and/or the creation of a public energy company—depending on how you interpret his words—and railed against the elites and the rich who, in the story told by the leader of Podemos, ignore the articles of the Constitution that protect "the people".
An energetic application of Article 128 of that document—once Podemos is in Government, of course ("if we are government, there is one article that is going to become fashionable")—would lead to "lower electricity bills", "an energy transition" and even "the creation of quality jobs". "Until Unidos Podemos gets in government, there is not going to be a rational system of sanctions".
The first point of that article says that "all the wealth of the country" is "subordinate to the general interest" and the second that essential resources can be reserved for the public sector, "especially in case of monopoly", along with "the taking over of companies when this is required by the general interest".
Iglesias drew a direct line between the privatisation measures brought in by previous PSOE and PP governments, current control by foreign shareholders, rising electricity bills and the purchase of MPs. He cited a list of two dozen or so names from the stage, including former prime ministers José María Aznar and Felipe González, the current Foreign Secretary, Josep Borrell, and the former head of NATO, Javier Solana.
Perhaps the desperation of a terrible and worsening position in the polls—fourth in all of them, with a trend that might lead to fifth place—has led the leader of Podemos to mix everything up in a big plot against "the people". He suggested collusion between energy companies that buy MPs, vulture funds and media elites.
Now that is a "betrayal of the homeland" or "betraying Spain", he shouted. He wants to see "the patriotism of hospitals, the patriotism of public schools" and "the patriotism that sees people comply with home help laws". He contrasted the energy oligopoly with the energy poverty or exclusion suffered by citizens: "how can electricity bills have gone up so much?".
Mr. Iglesias wants to "take back control, take back control of our country, take back control of our homeland, take back control of our public resources". After the collapse of his political party, he now proposes launching himself into business to "create a large public company", a "public energy network" to "really" compete with said oligopoly.
April 28 is not a general election but "constituent elections".
PSOE, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ
Spain faces three main challenges, said Pedro Sánchez in Castellón (Valencia): inequality, corruption and territorial confrontation. The PSOE, 140 years old, has the solution to "advance" towards the future: social justice, coexistence and "cleanliness in the exercise of public life".
The Prime Minister sold the 10 short months of his new government as a limited form of advance: "if we have achieved this much with 85 MPs, can you imagine what we can achieve with a broader majority?".
He began to describe "the good people" of Spain: instead of stealing, insults or spying on others, they want to think about the future of their children, jobs with decent salaries and retiring with a decent pension.
Facing these good people, in his narrative, are "the fears" created by a triple alliance on the right—the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox—"if they get enough MPs, they will try to form a conservative, ultraconservative government with the support of the extreme right". Rajoy did not assume his political responsibilities last year at the motion of no confidence—by resigning—and Ciudadanos did not vote in favour of kicking him out. Mr. Rivera, said the PM, "has changed his political colours more frequently than rainbow".
He has said that Pablo Casado "has enormous cheek" to talk about lowering the minimum wage when he is the leader "of the party of extra and off-the-books salaries", and that Daniel Lacalle, "the [PP's] proto-Economy Minister", has got into trouble with the debate on pensions.
The PSOE wants to reform the Constitution "to protect public pensions".
He denied he had done a deal with Catalan separatists in the outgoing parliament, and diverted the territorial issue towards depopulation. "The Constitution does not belong to anyone, it is the heritage of all Spaniards." His "no means no" with Rajoy, he assured listeners, now means a firm "no" to a referendum in Catalonia. He wants "coexistence, not confrontation" and thinks Mr. Torra and pro-independence leaders should tell their voters that they have been deceived with the tale about the republic.
He did not hesitate to talk about the right to "a good death", a measure "blocked" by the PP and Ciudadanos in parliament. "Today euthanasia is not [a] recognised right in our public health system […] but we are going to do it."
The socialist wish list and target groups included young people, women—"free, safe and alive"—equality, a dignified retirement and "active old age" and universal healthcare, and he once again mentioned the figure of 2.3 million Spanish children who "suffer child poverty, which seems like a lie but it is true".
"Future, future, moving forward, that is what we want for our country…we are going to show that Spain is a friend of the future."
CIUDADANOS, ALBERT RIVERA
In Malaga (Andalusia), "where my mum is from", and grandparents—a village of just "400 inhabitants", look, depopulation!—Albert Rivera totted up victories in Catalonia and Andalusia on December 2, 2018 and December 21, 2017, "great, historical nights for Spanish democracy". In just 70 days, he claimed, regional Ciudadanos ministers in Andalusia have done more "than the Socialist Party in 37 years in government".
He did not mention the Catalan roots of the party on the centre-left—"we are the liberal party, the centre party"–and invited foreigners to invest, settle and create families in Spain: "this a wonderful country", "they can trust Spain, which is a serious country".
First though, voters need to throw out "Sánchez and Iglesias and Torra y Rufián" because the PSOE has been "podemized". Mr.Rivera does not want to hear about any bad news: "I do not want to be a bad news politician, I want to be a good news politician".
He does, he said, want to be Prime Minister, and he promised he would govern "for all Spaniards" and that "I will respect what the Supreme Court says" with its judgement on the Catalan separatists: "If Mr. Puigdemont is watching us from Waterloo, or Mr. Torra, they should pray Sánchez wins". He said Mr. Sanchez had already promised them a pardon and that "the million dollar question" is whether the PM is on the side of the rule of law or "his own short-term interests with the coup leaders".
Without much enthusiasm, Mr. Rivera said Ciudadanos would suspend home rule again in Catalonia "if necessary", but would prefer to defeat the independence movement "sociologically, politically, intellectually". They want "to bring Spaniards back together".
On April 28, "a united country or a divided country" is at stake, Spain or Sánchez, and "a country of privilege or equality". He talked about families, birth rates, pensions, civil servants, education and equal rights throughout the country. He wants to see, in tune with an election campaign poster that has him starring in the next installment of Mission Impossible, "the Spain that does not leave anyone behind".
Not only has "this system of Spanish regions fragmented rights" and disunited Spaniards, he said, children also do not know what democracy is. The Ciudadanos leader proposes solving this problem by introducing a new core subject at school: Constitution.
The PP is "counting seats" instead of focusing on "getting rid of Sanchez", and "I'm worried Casado has thrown in the towel".
PARTIDO POPULAR, PABLO CASADO
In Álava (the Basque Country), Pablo Casado praised the PP, Javier Maroto, the victims of terrorism and the Transition, "the big hug that we all gave each other […] we do not want to lose that legacy". He attacked Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE, with a special mention for the threat from Bildu and the "arrogance of Otegui", who want to "continue humiliating the government of Spain because they need our votes".
He suggested Catalonia is heading towards what the Basque Country used to be with ETA, thanks to "ETA supporters, Catalan separatists, and communists" but above all because Pedro Sánchez "is not going to reject Catalan separatist votes […] which is a shame because I think they are making the same mistakes we saw here a few decades ago […] the confrontation, and street violence".
Neither Mr. Puigdemont will be in charge "from Waterloo" nor Mr. Junqueras "from Lledoners prison" if the PP takes back power, assured Mr. Casado, because "clearly we are going to defend national unity".
The PP campaign slogan is "safe value" so he spoke about "security, freedom and prosperity" and equal pay for Spain's different police officers—long live the Civil Guard vs. the ETA-supporting radical-left—"to save Spain, we must throw Sánchez out".
Economic measures included an anti-squatter law and a reform of the Criminal Code, so people can throw them out within 24 hours and punish them in some appropriate manner, along with the suppression of inheritance, donation and wealth taxes and stamp duty, and a lowering of income and corporation tax, to less than 40% or 20% respectively.
He wants to extend the reduced rate for new self-employed people, up to three years, for all sorts of different groups: the under 30s, the disabled, women who are victims of gender violence, those living in small villages, the long-term unemployed and those over 52.
Adding that to the various tax rebates, though, he did not explain how the PP links the projected fall in income with the plan to revalue pensions and offer working mothers very large increases in their own pensions: up to 15% more for those women who have given birth to more than three babies: "let us end this demographic winter".
The PP wants "regular, legal, orderly" immigration "linked to the employment market".
To counter Mr. Rivera's suggestion that he has thrown in the towel, Pablo Casado insisted "we are not playing for a draw, we are playing to win and to govern". The PP is not a strategic vote but "an indispensable vote, a patriotic vote".
VOX, SANTIAGO ABASCAL
"Asturias is Spain, and the rest just conquered land", began Santiago Abascal in Oviedo (Asturias), to great applause from the audience: "I am Basque, so twice Spanish". More applause.
He proposed "speaking of Spain with love" and to getting back "national self-esteem", "that is why we have chosen the symbolism of Covadonga to begin our campaign". He does not feel ashamed about being Spanish, about Spanish history or about Spanish national symbols.
"That stops with Vox, with living Spain."
Vox is nothing more than an electoral tool of voters who love their country, he said, and "we must regain Spain's national unity" after so long "at the mercy of the separatists" and faced with "communists, Islamists and progressives" that sound anti-fascist alarms: "no cordon sanitaire [a reference to an ongoing spat with Manuel Valls, running for Mayor of Barcelona] can stop so many Spaniards".
His party, he said, "defends normal things", like "love, common sense, telling the truth" or…Little Red Riding Hood [a school in Catalonia decided this week to take the book out of its library].
"What is not common sense is to hate your country", and nor is a "United States of Europe". Take note, Brussels.
"Patriotism is useful for negotiating internationally […] factories, industry, agriculture."
He described Catalonia as "a corner of our country" and has lashed out against Spain's expensive system of regions: "those 17 parliaments just make us unequal". More applause from the crowd. "Taxes cannot be used to pay for 17 parliaments."
"The virus of particularism is very dangerous."
Vox wants borders "to defend ourselves" and regulated immigration, if possible with people from "our Latin American brother countries" because "they share most things with us", not so "those who come from other countries".
"What is not common sense is to ban Don Quixote because it is Islamophobic."
Regarding ideas about strategic voting in inland constituencies, Mr. Abascal said that "even the strategic votes are not theirs … the PP does not dare mention the regional problem".
"The PSOE is the [biggest] problem in Spain and Vox is the solution", he added, concluding. He referred back to Pedro Sanchez's comment about "the good people" of Spain: "good people do not do deals with those who murder their colleagues" [a reference to the Socialist Party in the Basque Country].
Unlike the socialists, he does not want to dye the country red or green (Vox's color), he said: "we want Spain to be red and yellow [the colours of the Spanish flag] and for it to belong to all Spaniards".
"Long live Spain!"