Spanish politics may not be
of huge interest to foreign residents (perhaps because we can’t vote in most
elections, and often don’t want to vote in those we can), but they do affect
the lives of all who live in Spain (or who invest here) and with the slew of
elections coming up, they are certainly worth watching.
Not that we have quite reached
the stage of what the various parties have in mind for their country so much as
what they think of their rival factions. Or perhaps, to fine-tune the above,
what proposals, squabbles or situations the media want to report, discuss or
even in some cases create. They might even get a TV leader-debate going.
Which is always fun.
There are the five main (constitutionalist)
choices for Spaniards plus, in some regions, the separatists (local village politics
having an infinity of parties).
The Big Five, to treat them
all fairly, are divided into two groups – the Left and the Right. On the Left, there
is the PSOE and Podemos/IU, versus on the Right, the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos
and Vox. Thus, attacks and insults against future allies, reported (or created)
by the media, are a red herring in that the voters should know that their preferred
future government, led by the PSOE or the PP (we can be sure) will inevitably be enlivened by the minority parties of
either Unidos Podemos and its allies on the one side, or by Ciudadanos and Vox
on the other.
However, with one thing and
another, and short of any post-election surprise (from the slightly unreliable ‘liberal y
progresista’ Ciudadanos), we have the PSOE and friends versus the PP and
friends. Most Spaniards would be sure that their vote for one of the other three would merely season the mix
of the future government at best.
Perhaps the way for many
would be to look at it as – which would be worse in the next government – a sprinkle
of Podemos or a pinch of Vox?
No comments:
Post a Comment