The Government had to withdraw the reform of the Land Law this Thursday to avoid its second parliamentary defeat in 48 hours after the rejection of its bill to prohibit pimping in Spain. It is a symptom of the parliamentary weakness of the Executive, but also of the will of the rest of the political forces to magnify this isolation of the PSOE. The proximity of the European elections of 9-J has a direct influence.
We are facing the last appointment with the polls after intense electoral months and about to enter, if no one prevents it, a long period of almost two years without consultations on the calendar. Therefore, all parties play to the limit. Firstly, the government partner of the coalition, Sumar, who has not hesitated to vote differently from the PSOE to accentuate his own profile, surely influenced by the disappointments he is experiencing in this electoral cycle.
Secondly, the PP, which under normal circumstances would have supported the Land Law, prefers to vote against it to make the socialists’ weakness more visible. In such a rarefied climate of confrontation between the Government and the opposition, the popular reaction is to say that they are not in Congress “to save Pedro Sánchez.”
And, finally, the Government’s parliamentary partners also seek to distance themselves from the PSOE. The possible investiture of Salvador Illa in Catalonia will further distance Junts and Esquerra from this difficult consensus.
In these circumstances, in the political gossip mills there is not a day in which someone does not speculate with an electoral advance in Spain. If we pay attention to what the Government transmits on and off, this is not in Sánchez’s head and his desire is to try to reach the end of the legislature and present a budget project for next year. The CIS survey this Thursday predicts a victory for the PSOE over the PP which, if confirmed on the next 9-J, would further trigger rumors about an early election. What is pointed out is that, now that Catalonia seems to be entering a stage of stability, the opposite is happening to Spain. Politics is a ferris wheel.
