We, the People

There it was: the PSOE came through. Of course, with a bit less media manipulation in favour of the right-wing parties, Pedro Sánchez would have won a bit more comfortably, and not been obliged to join in what the El Español huffily describes as ‘another Frankenstein government’.

To paraphrase Jordi Évole’s comment following the results, the far-right, by a heroic effort, managed to get the centre-left supporters away from their Game-boys, afternoon TV shows and walks through the park, to go out and vote. Massively.

Pedro Sánchez, just 47, is now the Veteran and Old Man of Spanish politics. He has become almost respectable (even though the ‘Socialist Old Guard’ evidently hasn’t forgiven him). He won with what we hope will become four years of peaceful growth. Whether this is to be, we shall of course be seeing (he can’t pact with Ciudadanos - they won’t have it - while a Podemos plus Independents arrangement is fraught and his current plan to run as a minority government may be over-optimistic). Understandably, expect nothing until after the second round of elections on May 26th, although the main party leaders (less Abascal) will meet separately with Sánchez at the Moncloa next week for talks.

The stumbling of the Popular Party in the general elections of 28A has been of biblical proportions. Of the 137 seats that Mariano Rajoy achieved, Pablo Casado has lost more than half with just 66 remaining while almost 3.5 million votes have turned to smoke. This, among other things, has placed the party on the verge of bankruptcy.

At least from Ciudadanos' point of view, the conservative vote is falling under their control. Give it another few years and they will be the main centre-right party in Spain. Maybe. Vox didn't do as well as we all expected in the elections, and the PP is imploding. So, playing its hand for the party's future (rather than that of the future of Spain, perhaps), Ciudadanos has once again said that under no circumstance will it join with the PSOE to form a strong and stable government.

The ‘Independents’ did well, with 32 seats – five more than in 2016. Five of their triumphant candidates, four diputados and a senador, are currently in clink.

Still, the greatest threat to Spain’s easy way of life, the fighting bull in the boudoir as it were, was held at just ten per cent, and 24 seats. This nationalist 'anti-illegal immigration' party did well in Melilla and Ceuta (where there are lots of Moroccans) and Almería. They tanked in Catalonia and the north of Spain, Imagine (just to put this in perspective), your first concern about your country is not health, taxes, justice, corruption, child poverty, the economy, pensions or women's rights. It’s worrying about the boat-people!

Vox may have made large gains, but their leaders certainly don’t think so. So much so, that they have demanded a nation-wide recount!

The other elections, to the Senate, went well from the PSOE point of view. The socialists comfortably took the Upper House for the first time in twenty years.

The general elections are through. We won’t know for a while how the new government will be formed, and certainly not who will be the ministers; but, with the local, European and regional elections all still ahead, we do know one thing.

It’s not over yet.