Spain’s governing partners show bad blood in public

MADRID — Spain’s biggest political party and its leftist governing partner are making history. They’re also at war.

The Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Unidas Podemos (UP) formed the first national coalition government of the modern era in January 2020. The PSOE, of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, is the senior partner and UP has five Cabinet ministers. Together, they have pushed a barrage of legislation through parliament, much of it in response to the coronavirus, while fending off a wave of hostility from the political right.

However, in recent weeks simmering discord within the coalition has reached fever pitch, due to a combination of political differences and personality clashes. The wrangling, much of it played out in public, threatens to overshadow the government’s legislative agenda.

“I don’t think it’s good to put the coalition government under strain,” complained Pablo Iglesias, leader of UP and one of four deputy prime ministers. “And it’s put under strain when agreements are not fulfilled.”

The PSOE has made more of an effort to keep disputes behind closed doors. Sánchez has appealed to his partners in government to “lower the decibels.” However, party spokesman José Luis Ábalos admitted that “we are different parties and every day our differences are made clearer.”

Disputes have come in different forms.

UP’s response to street disturbances in several cities following the jailing of Catalan rapper Pablo Hasél on February 16, for tweets and song lyrics, has been one flashpoint.

As police struggled to control the, sometimes violent, protests, UP’s parliamentary spokesman Pablo Echenique tweeted “all my support to the young anti-Fascists who are demanding justice and freedom of speech.”

Echenique’s stance drew fierce criticism from the political right and Carmen Calvo, a deputy prime minister for the PSOE, accused him of “encouraging” the violence.

The Hasél case feeds into broader tension over how the coalition partners view Spain’s democratic credentials.

The PSOE, which has governed for a total of 24 years since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s, tends to defend the country’s institutions, such as the judiciary, police and monarchy.

Podemos — the main party within the UP electoral ticket — is new to national government. Since its founding in 2014, it has frequently questioned the integrity of such institutions and even the 1978 constitution.

Iglesias recently declared that “there is not a situation of political and democratic normalcy in Spain.” He pointed to Catalan independence leaders who have been jailed or fled the country.

While the PSOE continues to defend the monarchy, despite a series of scandals which saw former King Juan Carlos go into self-imposed exile last summer, UP maintains a republican stance.

At a recent parliamentary event, Iglesias refused to applaud a speech by King Felipe which praised Spain’s democratic consolidation since the thwarting of an attempted coup d’état 40 years earlier.

“It’s a symbolic debate,” Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University, said of the monarchy and democracy issue. “For Podemos it’s a way of differentiating itself from the Socialists, to show that they are still the same as they were before they became part of the government.”

He added that Podemos “sometimes would rather be out protesting instead of being in government and that is difficult for it.”

While such questions may cause only limited damage to the governing parties’ relationship, some concrete policy issues have been more corrosive.

The parties’ shared vision on issues such as the environment and gender equality makes them natural allies, but it also leads to turf battles.

Podemos complained the Socialists excluded it from preparation of an anti-discrimination bill, even though it heads the equality ministry. When UP abstained, along with the conservative Popular Party (PP), in a preliminary parliamentary vote on the bill, it looked like war was being declared on its coalition partner.

“Don’t use this chamber to stick your fingers in each other’s eyes,” said an exasperated Íñigo Errejón, of the leftist Más País party, as he upbraided both parties for their increasingly public spats.

Meanwhile, Podemos claims its partner is diluting and delaying a housing bill being prepared for parliament.

The two sides agreed in October, with their parliamentary allies, that the law should allow local authorities to intervene in the rental market and reduce rates in areas where they have spun out of control. But the PSOE’s Ábalos suggested recently it was better to “promote rather than impose” rental controls.

The next day, Gerardo Pisarello of Podemos’ Catalan wing, asked “what is the point of a progressive coalition government” if measures such as rent regulation are not feasible? He called the issue “a line in the sand.”

According to Podemos insiders, the housing law is the latest case of the PSOE failing to follow through on the agreed content and timeframe of legislation.

“People haven’t voted for Podemos just for it to sit and watch its coalition partner go back on its word, above all in social policy,” said one person close to the UP leadership. “We’re going to keep being very stubborn about this.”

There are also personality issues. While the chemistry between Sánchez and Iglesias remains good, deputy PM Calvo is seen as a cause of friction. Podemos feels that Calvo, a veteran of the 2004-2011 PSOE administration, has meddled in areas beyond her remit, such as gender equality.

With Podemos recently unveiling a bill aimed at easing gender transition there are fears the two parties will clash again, since the PSOE takes a more traditional approach. Celebrations surrounding International Women’s Day on March 8 could be another cause of strife.

The PSOE sees its partner’s habit of publicly airing grievances through social media and leaks to journalists as symptomatic of UP’s inexperience in government.

“There’s a faction of Podemos which believes it constantly has to get its message across through the media and justify the fact it is in government,” said one coalition insider.

The opposition is struggling to capitalize on the coalition’s difficulties. Although the far-right Vox has been polling well, the PP and Ciudadanos, on the center-right, both performed badly in the recent Catalan election, putting their leaders under pressure.

Both partners in the Sánchez administration are confident they can ride out the current turmoil, and parliamentary arithmetic suggests the government will survive.

“The government isn’t going to collapse,” said Simón of Carlos III University. “There’s no alternative in Congress that would allow the PSOE to govern alone. And secondly, to have an election right now would be suicide for both partners because the economic situation is poor.”

However, the bad blood that has dominated headlines in recent weeks is not going to disappear soon. The question is whether it will subside enough to allow Spain’s first-ever coalition to flourish.