Turning to the crisis of the PSOE – But

The PSOE tried to curb the shipping of the vote are younger and more left to we Can with the election of a new leader through an election open to the whole membership, instead of a congress party, as traditionally happened. Photo: EFE

despite the relative indifference with which he received my collaboration of the week, I want to insist on the theme of the crisis of socialism Spanish, so this is a reflection of the problems that through the whole of the democratic left european, which is reflected in the weakening of the entire social-democratic project in the world.

As I wrote the previous week, the PSOE led Spain a great process of social and economic transformation from 1982 to 1996, led by Felipe González. During these years, the country joined the European Community, today European Union, built a State of well-being respectable and gave a great leap in infrastructure that leveled with their partners more advanced. Thanks to the cohesion funds european, the Spanish regions that are most behind, they managed to overcome the poverty and the prosperity came to all the autonomous communities created by the Constitution of 1978.

After eight years of conservative governments, the socialists returned to government in 2004 and. under the presidency of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, managed to promote an agenda of expanding civil rights and social benefits very ambitious. However, the global economic crisis is fattened with particular virulence in Spain, in good measure due to the way in which the conservative government of José María Aznar had led to real estate speculation, and the mismanagement of the socialist government of the economic fall-out led to that in the 2012 elections, the PSOE had a great kick, while the PP had an absolute majority.

from then on, with all and the great social unrest provoked by the austerity policy of the government of Rajoy applied as a well-disciplined acolyte of the dictates of Brussels, the socialist party continued to lose voters. The leader who replaced Zapatero, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, a veteran of the governments of González, talent wise and as a negotiator, failed to recover the enthusiasm on the part of the electorate traditional socialist and, from the 2014 european elections, faced the rise of Can, a new strength identified by the electorate as left-wing, despite its attempts to present itself as a pole of attraction cross. you Can was supported by the mobilisations of the indignant in the aftermath of the Zapatero government had flooded the cities of spain and that since the 11th of may 2011 had been taken for months the Puerta del Sol in Madrid and in his first participation in elections won five seats in the European Parliament, with a vote coming mostly from the young people, a sector of the population especially hard-hit by the crisis, with unemployment levels that reached the 50%.

After those elections critics, which changed the political map Spanish and ended up with the two-party system prevailing since the mid-1980s, Can became the main challenge for the socialists. Also emerged a new force in the centre-right that, if we took votes on all of the popular party, it also attracted voters likely to vote for a PSOE traditionally moderate.

Can has presented itself as a critical force with the economic austerity imposed by the European Union at the behest of Germany, which has especially affected the most vulnerable groups in Spanish society. Although it has not been presented as anti-european, nor has it promoted the rejection of the euro, as they have done games similar, mainly the coalition of the radical left, Syriza in Greece, it has had slip-ups demagógicos in your proposal, as the initial call to banish the chaste of the policy, or to repudiate the political settlement that emerged from the Spanish transition to democracy. The emergence of the new party has ended due to phagocytose United Left, the coalition led by the Communist Party, which had traditionally been the third electoral force with national implementation, although always with a deficit of representation because of the electoral system that distorts the proportionality with the method of D’hont allocation of seats.

The PSOE tried to curb the shipping of the vote are younger and more left-you Can with the election of a new leader through an election open to the whole membership, instead of a congress party, as traditionally happened. The secretary-general and candidate to the presidency of the government emerged from that process was Pedro Sanchez; his youth and poise made him a figure with the attributes necessary to recover the party and party in the regional elections prior to the general December 20, 2015, despite not achieving wins undisputed, obtained results allowed to form the government in several communities with the support already outside of Can –in most cases– or of Citizens, as was the case in Andalusia. It seemed not a bad starting point.

In the December elections last year, the PSOE maintained the second place of election, but with a noticeable loss of county councils and with Can coming on the heels of. the Citizens was below its own expectations, but broke also as a significant force. In the margins, with veto power, were the nationalist basques and catalans, the second bent at a derived independence, so that, unlike previous elections, were not acceptable for a governance pact with one of the two major parties, opposed to any attempt to pro-sovereignty unilateral in those communities.

The possibility of an agreement with Can and that he United Left to form a government led by Sanchez faced that is required of the votes or abstentions of the nationalists. The socialist leader sought a pact that would include Citizens and Can, but, although he managed the agreement with the first, it faced the negative of the second to the formation of a government that had a paw in the center right, hell-bent on attracting the PSOE to an agreement clearly on the left, which would have implied some sort of commitment to accept a query pro-sovereignty in Catalonia, the matter vetoed by the socialist leadership, that has been proposed time and time again, a constitutional federalist to curb the challenge of independence.

the failure of The attempt of Sanchez led to a second election, in which the socialists and the Citizens stepped back, the PP recovered a pinch, and you Can didn’t get your objective of passing to the left of the PSOE. All of them, except the PP got worse. However, Sanchez wanted to keep its electoral commitment to prevent a government of the PP, even though he himself was not able to present an alternative. The threat of a new recession in a possible third election caused a rebellion among the appliances and local, the former leaders of socialism that even entered into discussions with Rajoy on the backs of the secretary-general and, finally, Sanchez was forced to resign, after his attempt to get the direct support of the foundations that originally had chosen him as their leader. The manager of the party seems to now move into abstaining in the investiture of Mariano Rajoy, which will enable a conservative government against which socialists no doubt be top of the opposition.

The fall of Pedro Sánchez has only been meaning a flight forward of socialism, because it does not contribute to their recovery election, to the extent that its contribution to the re-election of Rajoy can be used by Can –that is also engaged in a strategic discussion internal– to continue to capture the vote of the left is young, between the PSOE has very little appeal. The crisis of socialism Spanish adds to the loss of attractiveness of the democratic left in all of Europe, perhaps with the exception of Italy, as they ascend groups demagógicos able to attract the vote’s emotional discontent.

Political scientist. Professor – researcher at the department of Politics and Culture of the UAM Xochimilco.