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2024 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

Spain right wins EU vote ahead of PM’s Socialists

Spain's right-wing Popular Party (PP) won Sunday's EU vote in the country, just beating Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialists, official results showed.

Published: 9 June 2024 21:35 CEST
Spain right wins EU vote ahead of PM's Socialists
Right-wing opposition party Partido Popular (PP) leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo casts his ballot for the European Parliament elections at a polling station in Madrid, on June 9, 2024. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

With almost all ballots counted, the opposition PP won 22 seats with 34.2 percent of the votes, ahead of the Socialist Party which secured 20 seats after securing 30.2 percent.

During the last European polls in 2019, the Socialists came first with a strong lead, taking 21 seats compared with 13 for the PP.

The far-right Vox came in third in Sunday’s vote, securing six seats, or 9.6 percent of the votes, up from four seats in 2019.

A new far-right faction called “Se Acabó la Fiesta” (“The party’s over”), which was founded by a controversial YouTuber, made a strong debut, obtaining some 4.6 percent of the vote and will enter the European Parliament with three seats.

Sunday’s vote came almost a year after Spain held an inconclusive July election.

Although the PP came first, it didn’t have the parliamentary support to form a government, leaving the way open for Sanchez. He mustered a majority with the backing of far-left and regional parties, including the Catalan separatists.

Campaigning ahead of the European election has been marred by allegations against Sánchez’s wife. A court opened a preliminary graft probe and on Monday said it would summon her to testify early next month.

The right-wing opposition has demanded the prime minister resign, but Sánchez has insisted that the probe was groundless and little more than a political attempt to unseat him.

The investigation was launched following a complaint filed by a group linked to the far right.

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POLITICS

Spain’s Catalonia sets clock ticking for possible fresh polls

The speaker of Catalonia's parliament said Wednesday he will give the Spanish region's assembly two months to form a new government or else he will push for new elections.

Published: 26 June 2024 15:33 CEST
Spain's Catalonia sets clock ticking for possible fresh polls

No party secured an absolute majority in Catalonia’s 135-seat parliament in a May 12th regional vote in the wealthy northeastern region, which saw separatist parties lose their governing majority in the body they had dominated for the past decade.

The local branch of Spain’s ruling Socialists, led by Salvador Illa, won the biggest share of the vote giving it 42 seats, while hardline separatist party JxCat – headed by exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont – finished second with 35 seats.

The regional Catalan parliament had until June 25th to vote on a new government but neither Illa nor Puigdemont decided to present themselves to an investiture vote in the assembly as they had not secured enough backing from other parties to be successful and preferred to keep negotiating.

So the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Josep Rull of JxCat, on Wednesday set a two-month deadline for parties to agree on a new head of the regional government, otherwise a fresh election will be held – most likely in mid-October.

“After consultations with the parties, none have proposed a candidate to go through the presidential investiture debate by the first deadline,” he said.

“However, two of these parliamentary groups have expressed their willingness to explore ways to build an agreement to make the investiture possible over the next two months.”

To win the support of an absolute majority of 68 lawmakers of the Catalan parliament, Illa will need to secure the backing of the more moderate separatist party ERC which won 20 seats in the May election.

The ERC helps prop up Socialist Prime Pedro Sánchez’s minority government in the national parliament but its demands for regional financing so far seem too steep for Illa’s party.

Puigdemont is also courting the ERC but even with their support, as well of that of two other smaller separatist parties – the far-left CUP and the far-right Alianca Catalana – he will still fall short of the required 68 seats to enable him to pass an investiture vote.

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