Spain has a saying; “greed breaks the bag,” and greed is possibly the underlying reason making Spain yet ungovernable for several months. Since the elections of April 28, there have been no fruitful negotiations to arrange a government. Parliamentary arithmetic makes it almost impossible to approve a stable government between the different political forces in the hemicycle. It was clear that it was impossible to achieve an optimal balance in the terms set by Pareto, and the Spanish parliament has managed to crystallize the mathematical impossibility of joining such disparate political forces in a single line of government. On July 25, parliament decided not to sworn Pedro Sánchez as president of Spain; 155 deputies have said no, and 67 have abstained. Sanchez has not got a favorable vote from the friendly left wing groups, neither from the right wing groups. The internal struggles of the leftist groups have prevented the creation of a government alliance. Negotiations between leftist forces have had as main obstacles the distribution of executive power, the distribution of territorial power, and budgetary distribution. All the leftist groups were aware of Sánchez's need of their favorable vote, therefore everyone has tried to request the maximum in the negotiations. The solitude of the Spanish socialist party has revealed that all political groups have their particular agenda, and those agendas are different from each other political forces. There is no a shared idea of nation among Spanish political parties. The rejection of Sanchez has a double reading; on one side, it is clear that there is not a single political line in the left. On the other side, it is clear that if the left parties do not surrender to Sanchez´s will, there will be nothing for all of them.
The number of votes against Sanchez has been symbolic; 155 is the article of the Spanish constitution that allows the president of the government to suspend the self-government of an autonomous region. It is the article applied in Catalonia by former president Mariano Rajoy, and the real reason why all bordering nationalist forces supported Sanchez in the motion of censure against Rajoy. On July 25, parliamentary arithmetic showed that an alliance between leftist forces and peripheral nationalists was necessary to get Sánchez sworn as president. Podemos was the second lefty political force with more seats within the parliament. For this reason, its leader Pablo Iglesias has decided to take advantage of the negotiations with Sánchez. The socialist party has accused Iglesias of wanting to gain control of the nation's budgets without even having deputies enough to allow a stable government. Like Podemos, the peripheral nationalist parties have gone to the negotiating table with greedy demands that would impede the governance of Spain from the central executive. With Parliament´s Sanchez rejection, Sanchez is now vulnerable against the regional leaders of his party; the sworn failure gives room to a confrontation between regional senior members to lead the socialist party. Actually, Sanchez needs to have a good poker deal in incoming weeks to pop up a government agreement with Podemos and nationalist, otherwise the bluff will fail.
Sanchez had the most doubtful support to get to control the socialist party; he has been expelled from the general secretary; he did not have the principal party leaders support, Sanchez lacked social support as well. Even with all that against him, he had unknown help to emerge again and take control of the party against all the odds. Sanchez's presidency leaves the government of Spain in a situation of uncertainty at the international level; It is unknown what international support Sanchez has, with which governments Sanchez have achieved an open confrontation, nor what is Spain's role in the EU. Sanchez has two months to retake negotiations with Podemos and the nationalist parties; all of them aware that an agreement is a need in order to obtain power. However, the most likely situation for Spain is that the electorate will have to return to the polls in November. If the voting choice remains the same by the electorate, the situation will be the similar than now. In order to avoid returning to this parliamentary paralysis, the parliamentary arithmetic tells that the next elections must have electoral alliances of parties aimed to change the distribution of seats in parliament. Bipartisanship would return to Spain in the form of political blocs of lefts, rights, and peripheral nationalists.
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