Galicia will certainly be the first electoral test in Spain after the formation of the Amnesty Government in a climate of strong political tension. This test will not take long to take place, perhaps in early March. The machinery of the Popular Party and the Socialist Party are already in motion, with the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) waiting for its moment. There will be moves on the board.
On one of the fronts, as La Vanguardia has learned, the PSOE is studying the possibility of competing with Sumar, at least in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense. And on the other, the Popular People’s Party has just asked Vox not to stand in these elections in order not to put at risk the absolute majority of the conservatives (42 deputies out of 75) in the old Pazo do Hórreo, seat of the Galician Parliament in Santiago of Compostela. However, those of Santiago Abascal have already replied that they plan to present themselves.
The machinery is getting fat. The elections could be called very soon, in mid-December or early January.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo wants a defeat of Pedro Sánchez as soon as possible, even if it is partial. And the PSOE will not shy away from the battle. On the contrary José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will pour himself into the campaign together with other leaders. The socialists see the possibility of overturning the absolute majority of the people in their oldest stronghold. Both parties look around and don’t want blind spots.
The Socialist Party does not want unproductive votes on its left and the Popular Party would like to compact everything that is against Pedro Sánchez and the amnesty in a Galicia that is always a little far from the volcanic eruptions of Madrid DF. When he was president of the Xunta, Núñez Feijóo never wanted autonomous elections with high political voltage. The less noise, the better. This time is different. This time Feijóo seems to be in a hurry and the new Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, his former lieutenant, cannot say no to him.
This time it is unlikely that the elections in Galicia will coincide with those in the Basque Country. The PP is in a hurry and the Basque Nationalist Party, which has just decided to replace Iñigo Urkullu with Imanol Pradales, a still little-known candidate, wants peace of mind. The Basque elections could be at the end of March or the beginning of April. “We are not in a hurry”, they say to Sabin Etxea. Galician and Basque elections have been held simultaneously since 2009, without any rule making it mandatory. The coincidence contributed to enhancing the image of peaceful elections in both scenarios.
What is new is the desire of the PSdG-PSOE to avoid Sumar dead weight. Go in coalition or welcome them to your lists, at least in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense, where the possibilities of the platform led by Yolanda Díaz are nil. Their votes can be lost in the gorges of the Sil river, as happened in the last general elections, in July, in which the meager results of Sumar in Lugo and Ourense, about ten thousand votes in each province, did not obtain representation and they subtracted one deputy from the Socialist Party.
Consulted by this newspaper, official sources from Sumar declared yesterday that they are “unaware” of the PSOE’s offer and that their intention is to push ahead with the territorial implementation of Sumar in Galicia.
Coalition or Sumar candidates on the PSOE lists, at least in the two most difficult provinces for the left. This is a formula that the Catalan left already experienced in the parliamentary elections of 1999, when PSC and Iniciativa-Verds shared the lists of Lleida, Tarragona and Girona. An election in which Pasqual Maragall won the number of votes over Jordi Pujol, but could not add a majority of seats.
Sumar is fragile in Galicia and Yolanda Díaz does not have a good memory of the last elections to the Galician Parliament, in which the tides retreated completely, leaving the Atlantic moss exposed and the candidacy she sponsored, Galicia in Commu- Anova-Mareas, did not remove any deputies. This was the consequence of a succession of fights, splits and constant changes of leadership since in 2012 the Alternativa Galega de Esquerda platform, headed by the telluric Xosé Manuel Beiras, from the Galician Nationalist Bloc, and Díaz herself, in name of Esquerda Unida, they gave the surprise leaving the BNG very touched. The innovative platform of the irmandiños was in a way the germ of Podemos. Pablo Iglesias participated in those elections as Díaz’s advisor, sent from Madrid by IU.
Díaz and Iglesias are very much at odds today, as is well known. If Sumar approaches the PSOE, even if only in two provinces, Podemos will move away. Sumar’s official position is, at the moment, to try a united candidacy with Podemos and IU.
Podemos is also very weak in Galicia and at the moment it is looking towards the BNG, the first opposition party, led by Ana Pontón. However, an alliance between them does not seem possible. The aim of Podemos, a weakened Podemos that retains five deputies in Congress, is to operate autonomously without breaking completely with Sumar, measure its strength in the European elections in June and tighten ties with EH Bildu, ERC and BNG.
The headache is no less intense in the PP. Vox does not intend to withdraw and it is almost certain that the populist mayor of Ourense, Gonzalo Pérez Jácome, will present himself in the elections with a platform called Democracia d’Ourense, in order to obtain two or three deputies, leaving the PP without a majority absolute and force him to negotiate. Becoming dependent on Pérez Jácome, known as the Donald Trump of Ourense, before the stunned gaze of Manfred Weber, would not be a great feat for Feijóo.
More context data. Feijóo has just appointed Miguel Tellado, ex-secretary of organization of the Galician PP and accredited lumberjack in the public debate, as spokesperson for the Congress. This indicates that the PP wants to communicate the political tension of Madrid DF with the Galician scene. The elections will not take long to be called.