The specter of electoral repetition

There is no two without three, as the popular saying goes. And this is what could happen this year, as it already happened in the general elections in December 2015 and April 2019. After yesterday’s elections, which Neither the right bloc (PP, Vox, UPN) nor the left bloc (PSOE, Sumar), with their usual allies, reached an absolute majority 176 seats, the specter of electoral repetition is gaining strength.

According to Article 99 of the Constitution, after each renewal of the Chamber of Deputies, which will actually take place on August 17 with the Constitution of the General Cortes, the King will propose, after consultation with the parliamentary factions, a candidate to head the government who must submit to the post of President. If in the first vote in the House of Representatives a candidate does not get an absolute majority, he will be brought to a new vote after 48 hours where he can deserve a simple majority to be elected, i.e. yes over no. If the position fails, this process can be repeated over time and with different candidates, but two months after the first vote, if no candidate has the confidence of Congress, the Cortes will automatically dissolve and new elections will be held within 54 days.

If the president is not elected within two months, after a failed inaugural vote, Parliament is dissolved

The December 2015 general elections, which led to the entry into the Podemos y Ciudadanos congress, painted a scenario in which neither Mariano Rajoy nor Pedro Sánchez achieved sufficient support for his investment. In fact, the winner of the election, the then President and Leader of the People’s Party, refused to submit to the inauguration and it was the Secretary General of the Socialist Socialist Party who started the clock so that new elections could be held, which were held on June 26, 2016.

After that election, the state of siege continued despite the fact that Rajoy improved his records, removing Pedro Sánchez, the main champion of La La to allow the installation of the popular leader, in the Federal Committee of the Socialist Workers Party on October 1, 2016. Four weeks later, Rajoy achieved the position with a large part of the Socialist deputies abstaining.

Seven months later, however, Sánchez regained the leadership of the PSOE, and a year later managed to enter Moncloa via a motion of no confidence after the ruling in the Gortel case affected the People’s Party, establishing a monocle government that lasted barely nine months. In February 2019, the ERC rejected the budgets for the Socialist Executive and the leader of the Socialist Socialist Party called for elections in April of that year.

Sánchez defeated Pablo Casado in an election in which Ciudadanos nearly caught the People’s Party, while Fox stormed in by force. Sánchez appeared for the inauguration in July but without reaching an agreement with United We Can leader Pablo Iglesias. The inauguration was unsuccessful and time passed until a spontaneous election was called for November 10. Despite losing support, two days later Sánchez and Iglesias announced the first coalition government in Spanish history.