Rajoy in trouble over coalition gov’t: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Javier Farje, a political commentator, about negotiations among Spanish political parties to form a coalition government.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How likely is it for Mariano Rajoy to not be able to get the support he needs for his coalition government and snap elections be called?

Farje: Very likely, the Socialist Party, as you said, has decided they would not vote for his reelection as the prime minister. Podemos will not do that. Ciudadanos will not give him enough vote; citizens will not give him enough vote to get the majority he required, the majority of 176 seats for him to become prime minister.

So, he has a bit of a problem here because the likely outcome of the situation might be the possibility that there would be new elections, because no political party would be able to form a government, not even the Socialist Party with Podemos, because Podemos has imposed several conditions for this kind of alliance with the Socialist Party. And that wouldn’t be enough anyway for the Socialist Party to get enough votes to get a majority.

As you said at the beginning of your report, this is in a way the end of the two-party system that has prevailed in Spain since the transition after the death of Francisco Franco, the dictator. And this has created a new situation in Spain, where new movements even… not only the left but also the center-right like Citizens (Ciudadanos) have emerged as alternative to the traditional political parties there.

So, Mr. Rajoy is in a bit of a pickle at the moment because there doesn’t seem to be much of an inclination by other parties to want to give him any kind of support for him to become a prime minister. He’s the acting prime minister now. At the moment, it doesn’t look very likely he’s going to succeed in staying in power.

Press TV: Pablo Iglesias seems very optimistic saying if snap elections were to be held, his bloc would secure stunning results. Now, is that a possibility specifically considering how Syriza in Greece was made sort of an example for anybody who is daring to vote the anti-austerity path?

Farje: Well, Syriza won the elections in Greece, Podemos hasn’t. It’s a big difference there. Second, the only way Podemos can actually try to put forward its own agenda would be a coalition with the Socialist Party, because they would give him an… party… nationalist parties and the left-wing party that could give this kind of like wide coalition of… parties a majority.

And Podemos is saying to the Socialist Party he would... Pablo Iglesias has said that his party will only go in coalition with the Socialist Party if the Socialist Party accepts the referendum in Catalonia and accepts that autonomous regions are entitled to call for referenda if they want to do that.

Now, the Socialist Party is not going to accept that. The Socialist Party is totally against the referendum in Catalonia. So, on its own, Podemos cannot achieve anything. It could achieve something in coalition with the Socialist Party and smaller left-wing parties and nationalist parties.

However, the Socialist Party is very unlikely to accept the conditions that Pablo Iglesias is trying to impose. So, yes it’s been a remarkable resource for Podemos. 69 sort of seats in parliament; we’re talking about 20 percent, which is quite a lot, considering the fact that the other parties have vast resources to campaign; but on their own, they cannot act to achieve much unless all the left-wing parties like the Socialist Party are prepared to accept its conditions. And at the moment, it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.

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