Spanish elections and politics III / Pedro Sánchez faces a new term as PM

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We cried while while it happened, but our gal Carmen Calvo had to be put down, it was her time.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Yolanda Díaz, greeted with chants of "prime minister" and shouts from teamsters at an event for women politicians in Valencia
“We are here to stay”, assured Mónica Oltra, at the start of the ‘Otras políticas’ event

https://elpais.com/espana/2021-11-13/yolanda-diaz-recibida-con-proclamas-de-presidenta-y-gritos-de-transportistas-en-el-acto-de-mujeres-politicas-de-valencia.html

I will now attempt to translate the first paragraph of the body of this story. Please native Spaniards bear with me in my translations for I am merely a household speaker and don't really understand some of the more technical terms in this story, especially la dignificación del sector at the end which I think translates to "respect" but could be wrong. And I'm pretty sure that transportistas are "teamsters" but correct me if I'm wrong.

Amid chants of "prime minister," Yolanda Díaz was received upon her arrival to the event organized in Valencia by Iniciativa, the party of Mónica Oltra. The 2nd Deputy Prime Minister, together with Oltra, the Vice President of the Valencian government; the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau; the leader of Más Madrid, Mónica García; and the Ceutan politician Fátima Hossain participated in the event, […] The five women, arm in arm, waved left and right, applauded the attendees, and found, less than a hundred meters away at the entrance of the theater, a demonstration of teamsters who managed to put themselves nearly centimeters from the women and who threw a few eggs. Despite the fact that the police had to intervene, after containing the protesters a few meters from the entrance for more than half an hour, the cheers for the leaders were greater than the shouts against them. The protesters flung chants of "they do not represent us" as part of their protest for the respect of the sector.

The political discussion around this has to do with the public display of pro- and anti-Yolanda sentiment, as well as the exclusion of Podemos politicians from the event (Yolanda is an Izquierda Unida/Partido Comunista member of the Unidas Podemos alliance as well as the alliance's de facto leader, but not a member of the Podemos party). It's believed that these 5 women will be part of a new political alliance seeking to replace Unidas Podemos, although they deny these claims.

I, for one, welcome our new feminist overlords.

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RTVE has been obsessed with covering Diaz's public appearances. She's like their new Ayuso

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RTVE has been obsessed with covering Diaz's public appearances. She's like their new Ayuso

Yolanda Díaz is the opposite to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in terms of ideology and style. Hopefully she could be the antidote. Díaz is very popular right now (best rated political leader, according to oolls), but she has no party (the PCE does not contest elections since the 1980s) and her "Broad Front" hasn't been formed yet.

Can you show us these polls?

This is the big poll that the media was talking about all last week in the various discussion shows.

Specifically this question:


Source: http://datos.cis.es/pdf/Es3340marMT_A.pdf

However when it comes to a head-to-head-to-head-to-etc she comes in 3rd behind Pedro Sanchez & NOTA.

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Pablo Casado, 21 Nov: En el PP "no caben personalismos", el partido no es de “solistas” ni "una hoguera de las vanidades que no conducen a ninguna parte", "esto no es un talent show de megalomanías".

^{El PP cierra filas con Casado en Andalucía: "Esto no es un 'talent show' de megalomanías" https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/andalucia/2021-11-21/el-pp-cierra-filas-con-casado-en-andalucia_3328119/}

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos XIV Marquesa de Casa Fuerte, 22 Nov: “Está llamando personalismo a la personalidad, y divismo al liderazgo”, ha reflexionado. “Es una vieja trampa de la izquierda confundir la libertad, la personalidad, con la megalomanía para anular al individuo que destaca. Es un camino que no nos conviene recorrer.”

Álvarez de Toledo acaba de publicar un libro que ha incendiado al PP. En Políticamente indeseable (Ediciones B), la ex portavoz parlamentaria describe a Casado como un líder “veleta” y acusa al secretario general, Teodoro García Egea, de hacerle “bullying” [acoso].

^{Álvarez de Toledo responde a Casado: “Está llamando personalismo a la personalidad, y divismo al liderazgo” https://elpais.com/espana/2021-11-22/alvarez-de-toledo-responde-a-casado-esta-llamando-personalismo-a-la-personalidad-y-divismo-al-liderazgo.html}

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, 22 Nov: "Nadie se va contra nadie, todo se malinterpreta."

^{https://twitter.com/LaHoraTVE/status/1462701266065367043}

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Pablo Casado, 21 Nov: En el PP "no caben personalismos", el partido no es de “solistas” ni "una hoguera de las vanidades que no conducen a ninguna parte", "esto no es un talent show de megalomanías".

^{El PP cierra filas con Casado en Andalucía: "Esto no es un 'talent show' de megalomanías" https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/andalucia/2021-11-21/el-pp-cierra-filas-con-casado-en-andalucia_3328119/}

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos XIV Marquesa de Casa Fuerte, 22 Nov: “Está llamando personalismo a la personalidad, y divismo al liderazgo”, ha reflexionado. “Es una vieja trampa de la izquierda confundir la libertad, la personalidad, con la megalomanía para anular al individuo que destaca. Es un camino que no nos conviene recorrer.”

Álvarez de Toledo acaba de publicar un libro que ha incendiado al PP. En Políticamente indeseable (Ediciones B), la ex portavoz parlamentaria describe a Casado como un líder “veleta” y acusa al secretario general, Teodoro García Egea, de hacerle “bullying” [acoso].

^{Álvarez de Toledo responde a Casado: “Está llamando personalismo a la personalidad, y divismo al liderazgo” https://elpais.com/espana/2021-11-22/alvarez-de-toledo-responde-a-casado-esta-llamando-personalismo-a-la-personalidad-y-divismo-al-liderazgo.html}

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, 22 Nov: "Nadie se va contra nadie, todo se malinterpreta."

^{https://twitter.com/LaHoraTVE/status/1462701266065367043}

If you want to comment about PP internal disputes, please translate

Lol sorry. Tried translating "personalismos" into a word that people actually use in English (as in, not "personalisms") and gave up.

Pablo Casado, 21 Nov: "Personalisms [cults of personality? idk] do not fit" in the PP, the party is not for "soloists” nor is it "a a bonfire of the vanities that leads nowhere", "this is not a talent show [he used 'talent show' in English] for megalomaniacs".

^{El PP cierra filas con Casado en Andalucía: "Esto no es un 'talent show' de megalomanías" https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/andalucia/2021-11-21/el-pp-cierra-filas-con-casado-en-andalucia_3328119/}

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos, 14th Marchioness of Casa Fuerte, 22 Nov: “He's calling having a personality a cult of personality, and calling leadership, division. It's an old trick of the Left to confuse freedom, personality, with megalomania to erase the individual who succeeds. It's a path we shouldn't follow.”

^{Álvarez de Toledo responde a Casado: “Está llamando personalismo a la personalidad, y divismo al liderazgo” https://elpais.com/espana/2021-11-22/alvarez-de-toledo-responde-a-casado-esta-llamando-personalismo-a-la-personalidad-y-divismo-al-liderazgo.html}

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, 22 Nov: "Nobody is fighting anybody. It's all been misinterpreted."

^{https://twitter.com/LaHoraTVE/status/1462701266065367043}

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

The comparison between Díez & Díaz is funny, but important to keep in mind that Yolanda Díaz has these numbers after being a high-profile government minister for nearly 2 years, and VP of the country for the last year

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Mañueco had a very strange way to announce the new election. Using super dramatic words like "treason" and talking about the consequences of betrayal… could the hyperbolics backfire or is he safe to be re-elected?

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Sesión de control del gobieno in the Senate yesterday seemed like a lot of fun. Sanchez needled Javier Maroto on why they need PSOE to abstain in Castilla y Leon, since they are so afraid of even uttering Vox's name and they don't want to govern with them.

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Does anyone have info on the Diaz Ayuso spying situation? It sounds like PP themselves were spying on her. It's almost taking over Castilla y Leon news in the media coverage.

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Ayuso just gave a big press statement condemning the spying and explicitly accusing the PP leadership and Pablo Casado of the actions. Is this finally the fabled Ayuso challenge to replace la dirección nacional?

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RTVE says Garcia Egea will be giving a statement at 3 PM (or 9 AM Eastern time).

All the PP leaders did not show up to Congress today (despite there being votes) which allowed Alvarez de Toledo speak on their behalf! Obviously she took the opportunity to tear down Casado some more. They also cancelled all their media appearances for the day

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García Egea punched back against Ayuso saying that they investigated her based on a tip they got to make sure she wasn't doing anything wrong (I can't blame them, to see her brother get a state contract really invites suspicion to say the least). García Egea also said the PP has given her everything in her career, and that he can't believe she is taking this normal thing out of context for her own benefit to betray her colleagues like this.

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https://www.eldiario.es/madrid/vox-vota-retirar-llave-oro-madrid-putin_1_8872574.html

Vox votes against withdrawing the Golden Key of Madrid* from Putin
* (a sort of "key to the city" like in America)

All of the political parties of the Madrid City Council, except the far-right, supported the withdrawal of the Golden Key of the city of Madrid granted to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in 2006 when Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón was the mayor. The Vox spokesperson in the City Council, Javier Ortega Smith, has justified his position alleging that they had doubts about whether the Key was granted to Putin "or to the Russian people," "who are not to blame for supporting the tyrant".

[…]

This Wednesday, the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, replied to the Vox spokesperson and explained, in an interview on Telecinco, that the Golden Key of the City was given to the head of state, in this case, Putin, not to the Russian people, as Ortega Smith maintained. The mayor has indicated that it is what the regulation establishes, for which the withdrawal of it is “justified.”

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Why does Podemos continue to stay independent from the left-wing alliance? They are going to split the vote

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Is there a place where we can see the full lists in each circunscripcion when they are published?

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Not sure what PP was expecting by legitimizing the ultraderecha, now every PP politician has to answer whether they believe violence against women exists (thanks to one of the leaders of Vox Valenciana this is controversial now).

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

The bar should not be this low, but relieved that Guardiola in EX did not cave as quickly as other PP politicians have done across the country. Not like she deserves any credit, since this is bare minimum stuff.

That being said, if a new election happens and gives the same result, I won't be surprised when she does finally give in to boks.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Pedro Sánchez and the great Zapatero say this campaign is atypical. It's quite strange that, unlike in typical campaigns, the focus is not on economy or employment. Rather, the overwhelmingly conservative media and the right are imposing their own frameworks: revoke sanchismo, Sánchez vs Spain, ETA, Bildu.. The Trump era has arrived to Spain. I'm somewhat disgusted and depressed by the environment. Even though I never watch TV and I am far away from the paranoia of the Pablo Iglesias supporters, you can trust me if I tell you Ana Rosa, Ferreras, Pablo Motos, Risto Mejide and other talk show hosts are despicable scum. They have normalized fascism

Anyway. According to some French pollster, the Spanish society would be characterized by 16 political tribes. You can read their description through the link below (Spanish)

https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20230625/9063485/16-tribus-politicas-espanolas.html

Take the test to discover what's your tribe!

https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20230625/9063356/cual-tribu-politica.html

In case you want to ask me, out of curiosity,  I'm unsurprisingly "multiculturalist" (the perfect scapegoat)

It's not a real election until there are online quizzes to tell you how to vote

Edit: I got "Multiculturalistas"

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Hopefully the voters actually punish the politicians for their blunders

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Couple of questions:
Are PSOE and Sumar expected to try to cling to power if it’s possible, even if it’s an extremely narrow and diverse range of support parties? Is there a point at which they could form government but would rather go for repeat elections because of how difficult it would be to actually govern?
Is there any expectations of who, if anyone, would benefit from a repeat election?

With regard to repeating the election, I don't know exactly what is the current zeitgeist on that, but a repeat is what happened 4 years ago, and the 2nd election ended up being worse for PSOE and the left, with PSOE+UP losing 10 seats between then two of them. Sanchez managed to be installed as PM following the November election with the support of PSOE, UP, Mas Pais, PNV, and 4 individuals representing various nationalist and regionalist parties, and only won by 2 votes. ERC and Bildu (18 total) abstained.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2019_Spanish_general_election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2019_Spanish_general_election

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I was only able to see a bit of it (the debate ended at around 4:30 PM Atlas time/5:30 Eastern for those reading the thread after) but I thought Sanchez was a bit too snappy, though of course I agreed with most of he was saying. I thought it could have been moderated better.

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If PP and Vox take power, and L-merito comes back because of it, I can't imagine people wouldn't go to the streets in protest

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I saw the "debate a tres," definitely protagonizado por Yolanda Diaz & Santiago Abascal, featuring Pedro Sanchez as best supporting actor. One of the RTVE post-debate analysts put it well I think, "This was a debate between vice-presidents." It felt very much like the arguments between Diaz & Abascal dominated the evening, with Pedro Sanchez nonetheless performing much better than he did in his cara-a-cara with Feijoo.

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