Although my primary interests are in the areas of environmental sustainability and geo-politics, national politics play an important role in both issues. National leaders set both environmental policy and also a countries foreign policy and thus the way they are chosen and who ends up in power in specifically critical countries such as the United States, China, and india becomes critically important.
Last week I found myself lecturing a group of over 100 Executive MBA students from Kenya and Nigeria on globalization and they were very interested in the political stalemate here in Spain.
A new political paradigm
The short story is that the political future of a country, like a company’s business strategy, has much to do with its past and in this Spain is no exception.
Since the restoration of Democracy in Spain the two major political parties have dominated public life at the national level. The one on the left, the Socialist Party has been associated with the Republican side which lost the the country’s civil war and the one on the right, the Popular Party is in many ways the heir of the former regime.
What happened almost one year ago, on December 20th, is that Spanish voters gave a significant number of seats to two relatively new political parties, the right leaning Citizens Party and the leftist Podemos or “we can” party breaking the model that has been in place since 1977.
Up until this point the two major parties had, at times, needed to make concessions to regional parties in Catalunya, the canary Islands or the Basque country, but the results of December, 2015 were the first time a real coalition would be needed.
The problem is that these four political parties and their leaders have little in common and in some cases feel deep animosity for on another.
For the leader of the Popular Party, who won the most seats in December and again in the second vote in June 2016, the whole situation is surprising as he feels deeply that his administration has done a terrific job in cleaning up the mess made by his predecessor and he should therefore continue on the current path.
For the former leader of the socialist party, who resigned yesterday, the issue is that the governing party is deeply corrupt, has their former treasurer still in jail and a number of high level party members under indictment. His view is that the actual president of the country is clearly implicated in the scandals and he has categorically refused to allow him to govern.
For the new party on the left, the logical thing to do is to form an alliance which would reject what it sees as the failed neo-liberal policies of the current government and bring a new phase of people power to Spain echoing some of the strains from the greek party Syriza.
The new party on the right was willing to work with the Socialists in a coalition which would adopt a fiscally conservative but socially liberal program based on ethical government but would, under no circumstances have anything to do with the new leftists who for their part have been equally skeptical of the new right.
From bad to worse
The elections in June gave a similar result to the one in December with the socialist losing even more seats possibly due to lower turnout. The latest news is that the new leftist party has eclipsed the socialist in regional elections in Galicia and the Basque country and in a very complex series of events this weekend the party forced its leader to resign.
The pressure on the socialist party will be to abstain such that the Popular Party will be able to win a simple majority thanks to the support of Citizens. It is, however, unclear if the new party leadership will support such a move or even if the rank and file members will actually do what the party says given the fact that many of them supported their former party leader.
If there is no agreement by October 31st, the Parliament will be dissolved and there will be a third election for Spain’s lower house on Christmas day.
The world needs leaders
Spain, like the rest of the world, needs leaders. People who are able to look beyond their own concerns and ambitions and work for the common good. people who understand the environmental and political issues affecting the planet and their country and can help their own citizens get their heads around these challenges and move in the right direction.
In my view, Hilary Clinton put forward such a commitment in her debate with Donald Trump last week at Hofstra University and I hope in the weeks to come she will further cement her lead in the upcoming american election.
In Spain, as I told the Kenyans and Nigerians, we’ll see what happens.
Politics never change regardless the cirrcumstance of any country. These poltics act in the interest of themself. this is the reason politics never change, if they were to act in the interst of people then there would be more chance to see the change in their behavious.
As a US resident, I am not convinced that Hilary is the right choice for our country. Sadly most people who are looking at this level of politics seem to not have the best interest of the people at heart but their own best interests, which is what we see with Clinton and the scandals she has amassed. A world full of leaders with positive and inspiring motives would be so refreshing.