Spain begins charged with political uncertainties 2016

USPA NEWS - Spain begins the year 2016 charged with political uncertainties. The new elections shadow hangs over national politics, but also on the Catalan politics. At stake are the unity of Spain and economic recovery.

Two dates are marked in the Spanish political agenda at the start of the year: the 10th will know if Catalonia has a new president and three days later, the 13, the Spanish Parliament will be constituted. The last week of January, the national Parliament will vote on the investiture of the new Prime Minister, but it appears that the candidate for reelection by the conservative Popular Party, the current Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, will not achieve the necessary support and will to initiate a process of finding another candidate that could lead to early elections.

Both events are interrelated and the immediate future of Spain depends on how they resolved. Sunday January 3, in Barcelona, the anti-capitalist coalition CUP, whose ten deputies in the regional Parliament of Catalonia needs nationalist-republican coalition Together for the Yes (JxS its acronym in Catalan) to push through the independence process in Catalonia, will bring to their governing bodies to decide whether to reject the election support Artur Mas as president of Catalonia for another term.

If they decide not to support seven days later, on January 10, Catalonia is still not a stable president, new regional elections in that country is automatically convened. And the result of these new elections is uncertain. But if, on the contrary, the CUP decided to support the investiture of Artur Mas, they can make the new regional Government of Catalonia in favor of independence will depend on the strength of its Spanish Government out of the general elections on December 20.

The problem is that in these elections, the winner was the conservative Popular Party of Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, but not sufficient majority to govern alone. Nor has the Socialist Party (PSOE its acronym in Spanish), second in votes and seats, which obtained its worst election result in the last twenty years. With only 90 deputies, the Socialists would need to govern the support of the extreme left represented by Podemos, the communists of the United Left and the Catalan and Basque nationalists. Still, it would very difficult to govern in Spain.

The Spanish Parliament will be established on January 13. The last week of this month held the House of Congress should elect the Prime Minister, a position he aspires Mariano Rajoy for a second term. If there is no absolute majority in the first ballot and a simple majority in the second, a period of negotiations to present another candidate would open. If no candidate obtains the necessary support to govern, they would have to repeat the elections. And polls predict that, in that case, Podemos would be the ultimate beneficiary.

The Socialists accuse that Podemos want to occupy the space of the PSOE to the left of the political spectrum, an assessment that has opened a significant gap within the Socialist Party. With Congress in sight, the celebration could be in February, as stipulated in the Party Constitution, or later, when Spain has a stable Government, the continuity of the socialist secretary general is in question. Some party heavyweights as the president of the regional Government of Andalusia, Susana Diaz, have begun maneuvering to take the helm of the organization.

The Spanish political year begins revolt. Dialogue, agreements, and recovery unit are the words that are repeated in these first days of January. They are the same that occupied large areas in the Spanish press at the end of 2015 and reflect the need for this country, the third largest economy in the European Union, to open a new chapter in its history, leaving behind corruption and stagnation cuts. The eleventh term in the Spanish Parliament faces the need to amend the Constitution and ending political patronage to prevent detachment from society.