Political News for the Summer: Nothing Much until Late September

The first hurdle was to choose the Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados (Speaker of the House) with a third dark-horse candidate, Ignacio Gil Lázaro from Vox, helping the vote towards the PSOE-backed candidate Francina Armengol (ex-president of the Balearic Islands) to the angry detriment of the PP’s own Cuca Gamarra.

The PP’s strategy was in tatters, after Vox had surprised them at the last moment with their particular candidate in retaliation for a slight from Feijóo. Indeed, the PSOE candidate would have won anyway, by a short head, with the backing of the rest of the House, including Junts. The choice remained the same: progressive or regressive.

Or fresh elections.

Since the probable PP candidature of Isabel Díaz Ayuso would be popular with the electorate (although she is closer to Vox than Feijóo ever was), a supposed election might not be the best thing at this juncture – as the date for one – if it were to come to this – has now been fixed for Sunday, January 14th 2024.

The King duly met with party leaders on Monday and Tuesday – starting with the smaller groups – to try and find a presidential candidate he could propose for a parliamentary debate.

Tricky, since the two sides are running neck and neck.

On Tuesday night, following the consultations, Felipe VI proposed a parliamentary investiture session with Alberto Núñez Feijóo as the candidate (he has the support of Vox, Coalición Canaria and UPN to bring him 172 deputies. Just four short of the 176 needed as a majority). The debate will take place in late September. If Feijóo fails to win a majority, then the King will propose that Pedro Sánchez makes the attempt. 

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Until a new government is chosen, Pedro Sánchez remains as presidente en funciones. Following a possible/probable failure by Núñez Feijóo to bring home a conservative government in late September (El País here), Pedro Sánchez will have two months leeway to negotiate with the smaller groups to find enough backing to form a government. The complication being Junts per Catalunya. The story is at Público here.

Sometimes, a deputy switches sides and gives his vote to The Other Guys. He may do this through conviction, or more likely, for some other reason not unconnected to his finances. This is popularly called un tamayazo (in honour of Eduardo Tamayo) or transfuguismo. We hope that this kind of activity won’t be finding its way to the current front pages…