Spain general election: Could there be an another vote?
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 For more on this story, we can go across to Sarah Morris, standing by in Madrid.
00:03 Sarah, where do things stand?
00:05 Well, at the moment, as you said, the conservatives
00:11 will struggle to find an absolute majority with Vox.
00:15 They have nevertheless said that they feel that they won the election.
00:19 They got the most votes and most seats, and they think that the other parties
00:23 should allow them to take over and to govern for the next four years.
00:28 Now, we think it's unlikely that the other parties in the parliament
00:31 will respond to that.
00:33 They have less allies in the parliament because of Vox.
00:37 Vox has alienated a lot of those smaller and regional parties.
00:42 And so it is unlikely, as long as the People's Party is with Vox,
00:47 for it to find the numbers.
00:49 Now, Pedro Sánchez and his left wing allies,
00:52 they have more potential allies, more regional parties.
00:55 But as you mentioned, it looks as if they may need at least the abstention,
00:59 if not votes, for from Carlos Puigdemont's Together Party.
01:06 Now, Carlos Puigdemont obviously fled Spain.
01:09 He's in Belgium and he's still a wanted man in Spain.
01:13 In fact, the public prosecutor today asked a court
01:17 to authorise a warrant for Puigdemont to come and face justice
01:23 for the charges relating to that 2017 independence bid.
01:29 Now, Puigdemont has already made it clear that he's not going to give up
01:34 his votes very easily.
01:36 There's going to be, at the very least, an amnesty
01:40 and a self-determination, as his supporters call it.
01:44 That means an independence referendum.
01:46 And that is unlikely to happen.
01:48 We've heard a former socialist prime minister on the TV today
01:52 saying that that's a line that the socialists can't cross.
01:55 But he does think that there can be talks and he does think
01:58 that he thinks that Carlos Puigdemont's party can be persuaded to see
02:02 that this is a golden opportunity for Spain and Catalonia.
02:06 And so given that there's so much uncertainty, could there be another vote?
02:10 That's very possible.
02:15 You'll remember back in 2015, 2016, there was a 10 month stalemate.
02:21 There was also another stalemate in 2019.
02:24 And there were repeat elections during those stalemates
02:27 to try to fix the blockade, the problem.
02:32 And that is a very much a possibility.
02:35 If neither, none of the leaders can actually get a majority in the parliament.
02:41 And now we're waiting for August the 17th when the parliament will be reconvened.
02:46 The king, Felipe VI, will start to hold talks with all the various parties
02:50 and he'll be basically trying to get a sense of whether one of them
02:54 can form a majority.
02:56 And then he'll say to them, go to the parliament, seek
02:58 their confidence and lay out your program.
03:01 We'll see what happens there.
03:03 Thank you very much for that, Sarah.
03:04 More supporting there for us from Madrid.