The atypical phenomenon of July 23: the unequal European support of PSOE, PP, Vox and Sumar

@ElentirENG ES 7·19·2023 · 7:04 0

Until now, the general elections in Spain have been an opportunity to display the external support of each party.

Giorgia Meloni's speech supporting Vox to be in the next government of Spain
The Feijóo's infamous offer to Sánchez in a rigged debate to hide an alternative

The parties that most boast of being Europeanists have exhibited this support to prove the prestige of each political formation. However, something quite atypical is happening in these elections: only one party has managed to exhibit support from European rulers, and that party is Vox. Up to the moment of writing these lines, neither the Socialist Party (PSOE), nor the Popular Party (PP) nor the communists of Sumar have so far exhibited the support of any European ruler.

Support for Vox from two of its ECR partners

Vox belongs to the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which includes three leaders of the European Union: Mateusz Morawiecki (Poland), Petr Fiala (Czech Republic) and Giorgia Meloni (Italy). Two of them have already directed messages of support to Vox. Last week we saw the message of support from Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):

Vox published yesterday the message of support for Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland; a message in Polish and subtitled in Spanish (the video does not have English subtitles):

The support for Vox by Fidesz, a partner of the PP in the IDC and the IDU

In addition, Vox yesterday released a message of support from Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary and president of the Fidesz party, a member of the International Democratic Center (IDC) and the International Democratic Union (IDU), two organizations whose partner in Spain is the Popular Party. In addition, Fidesz was part of the European Popular Party until 2021. Orbán's message It is in Hungarian, subtitled in Spanish (the video does not have English subtitles):

What has happened to the PSOE, the PP and Sumar?

Regarding what has happened with the other parties, the easiest thing to explain is the lack of support for Sumar: there is no president of the communist government in the EU, hence the new electoral brand of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) cannot display any European support. It remains to be seen if they will receive the support of the dictators of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who are among the rulers of anti-democratic regimes that the PCE has been supporting.

The cases of the PSOE and the PP are more strange. The PSOE belongs to the Party of European Socialists (PES) to which the presidents of government or prime ministers of Germany, Denmark, Malta and Portugal belong, as well as the president of the government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. To this fact we must add that Sánchez is the current president of the Council of the European Union, since his presidency corresponds to Spain in the second half of 2023.

Let us add to this, moreover, that Sánchez is also the president of the Socialist International. It is difficult to understand that a ruler in his position has not received a single message of support from other European rulers, unless they take his defeat for granted and do not want to be splashed by it.

In turn, the PP is a member of the European People's Party (EPP), to which the presidents of government or prime ministers of Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Sweden belong. Having eight partners in government functions, it is strange that the PP has not received the support of any of them, especially considering that if Feijóo were to govern, he would be the president of the Council of the European Union, replacing Sánchez. The possible explanation is that in the EPP they do not look favorably on the PP's regional pacts with Vox and the possible national pact that Alberto Núñez Feijóo would need to be able to govern if he wins the elections next Sunday.

Let us remember that For years the EPP has formed a coalition with the socialists in the European institutions, a fact unknown to many voters of the parties that are part of these coalitions, which in their respective countries act as political rivals. The question, now, is whether the PP will allow itself to be pressured by the EPP to agree with the Socialists (that seems to be Feijóo's option, judging by the pact he offered to Sánchez last week) or if he will agree with Vox, which is in favor of repealing the ideological laws of the left, laws that the PP left intact during Rajoy's term.

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Photos: PSOE / Partido Popular / Vox / Sumar.