Can Spain form a new government?
The conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo failed to obtain the parliamentary majority he needed to form a government on Wednesday. The second attempt on Friday is considered hopeless. Pedro Sánchez, leader of the socialist PSOE, is now courting the votes of separatist regional parties in a bid to continue governing with his left-wing coalition. In return for their support the separatists demand amnesty for the organisers of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.
Now pluralism has a chance
Eldiario.es now wants to see results:
“That's it. The farce is over. Now we get to see the real game whose outcome will determine whether a prime minister takes office or whether we head for new elections. ... Sánchez and his negotiating team must decide how far they want to go. ... First they must ensure that the text for an amnesty is legally and politically watertight and can't be interpreted as a humiliation for any of the parties. ... The radial model of infrastructures, the concentration of power in Madrid, the chronic failure to stick to budgeted investments, an outdated taxation system. ... All of this must be addressed in this legislative period. The focus must be on the real, pluralist Spain.”
Predisposed to political instability
Handelsblatt's Spain correspondent Sandra Louven frets over the process of forming a government:
“It is one of the absurdities of Spanish politics that the small parties have immense power as kingmakers - Junts per Catalunya secured just 1.6 percent of the votes nationwide. The reason for this is the enmity between the two major parties, which has grown over time and makes a grand coalition based on the German model impossible. Everything points to political instability - and in the long run this is also likely to have a negative effect on the economic data.”