We are at a time when politics occupies the entirety of public debate. We come from a tortuous path of failed campaigns and elections, and the future shown by the various consultative bodies; through surveys; is more difficult than the previous one; a future that will necessarily involve dialogue and agreement as the fundamental pillars of change. The Spain of the majority has died, in the heat of the new political forces.
This isn’t an easy situation. The competitive enthusiasm generated by the return to the ballot box can give the Spanish citizen an optimistic and exciting feeling for the exercise of democracy. However, we are still in not aware that Spain, at this time, doesn’t have the capacity to carry out and investment. Therefore, it’s better not to talk about when it’s time to reach governance agreements, in which programmatic proposals must be included.
It may seem that with the achievement of the investiture everything is already done, which is the end, when it is only a means. It is only a question of deciding which head will lead the Spanish government. For that head to be able to govern, there must be at least a simple consensus in govern.
This should be the country’s real concern today. Spain has, structurally, a number of difficulties that needs to be addressed with further reforms, which won’t be implemented until the necessary agreement is reached in the lower house. Because of that, although the numbers, as well as an extraordinary technical abstention on the part of the opposition, make an investiture viable, Spain still lacks the capacity to govern and to approve the measures required by its citizens.
Such basic aspects, which are not simple, like employment, pensions, taxation, and everything related to the national economy, demand solutions. these remain unreached because there is no political party that, in almost its entirety, maintains a programmatic relation and government options. There are coinciding features, but they are neither sufficient nor necessary to provide the country with a stable and solid executive.
Many resort to the easy take of covenant policy. Some, like Irene Montero, predict the fall of the bipartisanship at the hands of the new formations. However, the constant refusal of certain groups to form a government with those who, a priori, are their strategic allies is not only leading us to the fourth elections in four years, but also to people beginning to question the whether the defeat of the two-party system benefits Spain.
We can resort to the typical mantras, or justifications used in the past:”democracy requires adapted political formations”, “pacts are the new politics”, “more politic formations represent better to the spanish population”. Sentences which have been underpinning the multi-party discourse against the “archaic” of the two big parties.
However, they have remained just that: in words. For having to repeat the elections again, although many find it hard to accept, the result of this multi-party system in which majorities doesn’t exist.
Blaming the multi-party of this situation is a rather demagogic argument. However, we can say that, maybe, the political parties that, nowadays, represent society in the parliament aren’t currently in a position to do it, or don’t know how to focus the results at the ballot box. In other words, Spain lacks politicians capable of extracting from the electoral mandate an interpretation in a multi-party key, since we continue with the same winner and loser discourse that dominated in the past.
These fourth elections in four years have an extraordinary character, as they are held after the failed investiture of the PSOE. Despite the fact that this is an anomalous situation, no matter how much it is contemplated in the Constitution, we continue to approach it from the ordinary strategy; identical to the one that has been carried out in the past, when the bipartisanship drew a completely different scenario to that of the multi partisanship.
Citizens are asking the parties for an understanding
We still think in colors, in acronyms, in numbers. In everything that concerns political forces. And the most important thing is still being left out: the citizens. Those who, with their vote, are sending a clear message to the parties. They are asking for an understanding. A deal that some call treason and penalize at the ballot boxes, but then try to stage it.
To sum up, Spain needs a solid and stable government, capable of dealing, on the basis of consensus, with the relevant and structural measures. Unfortunately, the heads of the various party lists haven’t demonstrated yet the political solidarity which, in this moments, the country deserves. Not that the rules of the game have changed. DIrectly, the game has changed. Therefore, we cannot pretend to move in the new board with strategies and rules from the past. In the face of an extraordinary situation, we need measures of the same kind.