Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: People’s Party (Spain)

  • Spain’s Rajoy Forced Out, Sánchez Elected Prime Minister

    Pablo Iglesias Pedro Sánchez
    Spanish party leaders Pablo Iglesias and Pedro Sánchez speak in Madrid, February 5, 2016 (PSOE)
    • Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy has lost a confidence vote in Congress in the wake of a corruption scandal in his conservative party.
    • Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez takes his place with the support of the far left and regionalists.
    • According to polls, the liberal Citizens stand to gain the most from early elections. (more…)

  • People’s Party Should Leave Catalan Media Alone

    Plaça de Catalunya Barcelona Spain
    Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, June 23, 2014 (Pixabay/Elena Repina)

    Spain’s conservative People’s Party is overreaching in its attempts to silence pro-independence voices in the Catalan media.

    • The party has reported a Catalan radio journalist, Mònica Terribas, to the Electoral Commission for the province of Barcelona for using the terms “imprisoned ministers” and “president-in-exile” in a broadcast.
    • The same commission earlier banned Catalan public television from using those phrases to refer to separatist leaders who have been taken into custody or fled to Belgium.
    • It also accepted a request from the People’s Party to stop the Barcelona city council from coloring buildings and fountains in yellow to indicate support for the restoration of home rule.
    • Xavier García Albiol, the Catalan People’s Party leader, has proposed to shut down the region’s public television station, TV3, and relaunch it with “normal and plural” journalists, by which he means journalists who oppose secession.
    • Esteban González Pons, a conservative Spanish member of the European Parliament, tells El País there may be a role for NATO in countering Russian “fake news” about the Catalan crisis. (more…)

  • Parties Agree to Reduce Deficit, Raise Minimum Wage in Spain

    Spain’s ruling conservative party announced a series of budget policies on Friday that are meant to placate the European Commission and expected to pass parliament with the support of the opposition Socialists.

    Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters the government that came to power in October had agreed to reduce the deficit by another €16 billion, mostly by raising taxes. The extra austerity measures should bring the shortfall down to 3.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2017.

    Spain has consistently missed its fiscal targets since the start of the European debt crisis. The European Commission has always issued stern statements but never used its power to fine Madrid.

    Most recently, the EU executive lamented that Spain had failed to take “effective action” to bring its deficit under the 3-percent deficit ceiling. Yet it balked at imposing a penalty of .2 percent of national economic output, or €2 billion. (more…)

  • Spain’s Socialists Agree to Give Rival Rajoy Second Term

    Spanish Socialist Party leaders decided on Sunday to give conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy a second term, ending ten months of political gridlock at the risk of growing their far-left competitors.

    Rajoy has won two elections in a row since December but each time fell short of the required majority. In order to stay in power, he needed the Socialists — the second largest party — to abstain in a confidence vote. (more…)

  • Rajoy’s Confirmation Hinges on Socialist Abstention

    Spain’s caretaker prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, is due to seek parliament’s support for a second term on Tuesday but knows that his chances are slim.

    “There is a serious risk of having to call a third election in the same year,” he warned supporters of his conservative People’s Party in Galicia this weekend.

    Spaniards returned to the polls in June after the parties failed to put together a coalition government in the wake of the election in December. Neither major party commands an absolute majority, however, and the left-wing Socialists have said they will not vote for the right-wing Rajoy. If they refuse to budge, a third election may be inevitable. (more…)

  • The Rajoy School of Political Science

    Mariano Rajoy
    Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy looks out the window of a cable car in Sóller, Majorca, June 22 (PP)

    Napoleon famously regarded luck as the most important quality in his generals. We may need to apply the same thinking to politics, or at least Spanish politics.

    Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy seems to be developing an entire political theory based around luck.

    He would not put it quite like that. He would presumably argue that his continued success against all the odds is down to his political acumen and skills. But that is not how others see it. (more…)