The electoral storm is unleashing with ferocious intensity on the start of the Spanish mandate of the European Union, in its most turbulent moment since the fall of the Berlin Wall and with a savage war on its doorstep.
On Saturday 1 July, Spain takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU for the fifth time. And Pedro Sánchez will thus take the reins, at least in his first steps, of a European semester, until December 31, previously led by Felipe González, in 1989 and 1995; José María Aznar, in 2002; and, the last time, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, in 2010.
To gauge the importance of the Spanish presidencies of the community club, it should be noted that some of its milestones were the christening of the single currency as the euro and its introduction into circulation, the entry into force of the Schengen area, the origin of the Union for the Mediterranean with the signature of the Barcelona declaration, or the approval of the Euroorder.
But none of Sánchez’s predecessors in Spain faced a general election, which will determine their continuity in office, during the first steps of the semester.
The head of the Executive, who declares himself “very excited” with this presidency, caressed the European mandate as the culmination of his international agenda and his foreign policy in this legislature, after the success of the summit of NATO held in Madrid in June 2022, or its triumphs at the European Council promoting debt mutualization, recovery funds or the Iberian energy exception.
But the notable loss of socialist territorial power caused by the municipal and regional elections of May 28, led Sánchez to hasten the end of the legislature and to call the general elections for July 23.
And the electoral scenario, with the demographic forecast of a possible relief in Moncloa and with Alberto Núñez Feijóo encouraging a change in the political cycle in Spain, contaminates the beginning of the presidency of the EU with a bitter political shock.
Sánchez thus sees the first steps of the semester torpedoed by the right, according to the Socialists. The first shock was delivered a few days after the announcement of the electoral advance, which postponed to September the president’s intervention in Strasbourg to present the priorities of the semester, initially scheduled for July 13, already in the middle of the electoral campaign .
Moncloa alleged that she requested this postponement on her own initiative and “out of responsibility”, so as not to interfere in the elections. But the Government’s formal request took place after the leader of the European PP, Manfred Weber, requested it from the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.
Shortly afterwards, Sánchez agreed with the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to bring forward to July 3 the visit to Madrid of the College of Commissioners, scheduled for July 6: just the day on which at midnight the campaign And the European PP also managed to eliminate the appointment of the conference of presidents of the European Parliament, scheduled for June 26 with the presence of the King. The president of the European Socialist Group, Iratxe García, denounced that the right is trying to “torpedo” the Spanish semester. “The harm is not done to Pedro Sánchez or the PSOE, they are done to the country and to the whole of Spanish society”, he warned.
Despite the irritation following an “attack by land, sea and air”, the Government is trying to prevent the electoral struggle from dynamizing the start of the European mandate. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, insists that this is “a real country project, for the whole country”. “It will demonstrate Spanish leadership, now that Spain’s voice is finally being heard so strongly in Europe and the world,” he says.
The Executive denies, however, that the electoral scenario could disrupt the semester. “Democracy is never a problem”, says Sánchez. Other rotating presidencies already faced electoral appointments and even changes of governments. “The only risk is that someone wants to politicize a State policy, that someone tries to politicize it would involve trying to make the presidency a failure for Spain and for Europe”, warns Albares. “And I hope that no one has this temptation”, he confides.
