Portugal lessons for Spain: the coalition clings to its social agenda against the ultra wave | Spain

Until not so long ago, the March 2024 elections, the Iberian Peninsula was a progressive island inside an EU increasingly overturned to the right. Pedro Sánchez and António Costa, allies and friends, presumed about that in Europe, and appeared often together, especially that day when They achieved the Iberian exception at a tense EU summit. But Costa, who in 2022 had won with 41% of the votes and had an absolute majority, resigned in 2023 For an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office that the judges later disavowed completely, and since then the socialists do not stop falling and the extreme right of rising.

The Portugal elections this Sunday They have finished that turn that began in the parliamentarians of just over a year ago and now Spain is more and more See exploit your own ultra -right. And the response of several members of the executive consulted is coincident: Spain is different precisely because the left continues in the government and from there can maintain its progressive policies.

« Costa was the victim of a case of Law Fare Book. He should never resign. So much so that He is president of the European Councilbecause his career is impeccable. But he yielded to the pressure and that sank to his party, which has not resolved the succession. Portugal shows that, as Sánchez always says, the best way to stop the extreme right is from the government with progressive policies. Going to elections having the absolute majority was a very clear mistake, ”summarizes a minister. In Portugal, unlike in Spain, that is not decided by the prime minister, but the President of the Republic. But it was the resignation of Costa that opened the door to those elections that sank to the left.

Other ministers are scandalized by the fact that for the Socialists, a corruption scandal that later remained at all and the coast departure meant a drop of 20 points, while for the Prime Minister of Centrodécha, Luis Montenegro, a clear case of Conflict of interest with a family business His, which is at the origin of the electoral advance, has not had hardly any wear, because it has risen in votes and seats.

The Government is very aware that the wave of the right and ultra -right that sweeps almost all of Europe can also reach Spain in the next elections, scheduled for 2027. But Sánchez and its maximum confidence team are convinced that Spain was ahead of this debate in 2023 and resolved it with a clear response: an extraordinary mobilization of the progressives and also of nationalists to prevent a PP and Vox government.

Although Sánchez constantly appeals to that battle of 2023 to maintain that mobilizing thrust, in the Moncloa they know that this is not enough to stop that background current worldwide. Therefore, both in the PSOE and in adding, and especially the latter, insist that the only way to change what seems a course already marked by history is deepen the social agenda, multiply the reformscarry out measures that really change the lives of citizens to break the message of the ultra -right that speaks of failed state, of tax scam, of a democracy that does not give solutions. Portugal serves as an incentive for the government to reinforce its speech against the ultra -right and also its social agenda, although many ministers insist that the situation is not comparable precisely because in Spain the left is in power and Sanchez has a strong leadership, unlike what happens in the Portuguese socialists, where its general secretary, Pedro Nuno Santos, has resigned the same electoral night. « What we do note is that the data is not enough, it is not enough to do good policies, we live a moment of feelings policy and the left also has to play there, we must conquer citizens with exciting projects, » says another member of the Executive.

There is another important lesson that comes from Portugal and it is not for the socialists, but for what is on their left. In 2021, both the Communist Party and the Bloco de Esquerda were very powerful, and governed without ministers but with external support and much influence. But the coastal budgets knocked down, which decided to go to elections To achieve the absolute majority and achieved it. Since then, both are in free fall. According to various members of the Government and the parties outside the PSOE, the Portuguese left, despite its weakness, approaches 10%, a non -negligible figure, which is common in Europe, and similar to the one that predicts 40DB at this time. To add and we can Together, but, nevertheless, it has been divided into three features and that has led it to irrelevant 10 seats in total (6, 3 and 1), less than 5% of the 230 total deputies.

The collapse has caused several reflections in the so -called Spanish alternative. And in general, it has only served to reinforce each of the theses that each party defends. In the words of the Federal Coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, who This Monday turns a year in officethe result « forces » organizations to « do their homework to build a broad alliance such as July 2023 », when a fortnight of political forces presented together under the summar brand. « We have a responsibility with Europe, » he added, « fragmentation has led to the three being practically irrelevant in terms of parliamentary arithmetic and this must invite us to reflection. » Maíllo calls « to avoid » that a similar scenario occurs in Spain and claims to « extract lessons. » « Given an advance of authoritarian political proposals, we must build a project of hope that puts foot on the wall » to these programs, he advocated at a press conference.

Highly, Jaume Asens, Eurodiputa de Catalunya in Comú (party that is part of the government coalition), presented an identical analysis on social networks. « Portugal throws us a warning: when the left is fragmented and moves away from the people, resignation gains … or the extreme right. Urgent lesson for those who are to the left of the PSOE: unity, audacity and street. Or irrelevance, » he concludes.

From Sumar Movement, one of its coordinators, Lara Hernández, focused his speech on defending the need to « take care » that is already an « exception in Europe, » he said in reference to the government and his policies. In the opinion of the party created by Yolanda Díaz, the Executive cannot « settle for resisting » but is « forced » to « put on the table » a « ambitious » progressive agenda. The recipe against what they define as « reactionary international » is, therefore, the reduction of the working day, the permanent bonus of public transport, a green reindustrialization or the universal benefit by parenting, cited as examples.

After a week in which Podemos has raised the tone Against the executive parties, Hernández avoided calling the unit, something that was also absent in the speech of Ione Belarra. On the contrary, its spokesman, Pablo Fernández, returned to the counter of the coalition. « In our case we have to grow the forces of peace, because in Spain there are millions of people who oppose the war regime, when rearma, to the exacerbated increase of military spending … (…) Transform that social force into an electoral force that manages to take a copernican turn to the policies that the Government of Spain is carrying out, » said the secretary of the organization, reports again Álvaro Ruiz. In his role as Tertullian in RNE, former Vice President Pablo Iglesias also acknowledged that, according to the results in Portugal, there are « many reasons to be worried. » « Either the left assumes the land of the cultural battle against the right or, if not, the ultra -right will be reinforced in all countries, » he concluded.