If you think the United States is divided, Spain has been on the verge of civil war and collapse, with the Catalonia region threatening secession since 2017. It hasn’t stopped socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez from throwing fuel on the fire by lambasting several nationalist world leaders, including Donald Trump and Javier Milei. It was an odd move because nationalist separatists are the only reason Sanchez still has his elected position.
Spain has been ravaged by socialism for decades, with the right wing all but kept out of power since the collapse of Francisco Franco’s 1975 government. Propaganda against Franco has been strong, even though Spain had an economic golden age toward the end of Franco’s tenure. The Spanish people have suffered socialism ever since, and Spain’s economy has continually spiraled downward, leading to multiple secession attempts from the Basques and Catalonians, with both nationalist movements bringing protests of hundreds of thousands into the streets of Madrid over the years.
This summer, it looked like Sanchez would be ousted from his position as prime minister, as his socialist party fell well short of a majority. A large part of his unpopularity has been because his policies have ravaged regions like Catalonia, where the population feels the government gives far more to cover for the rest of Spain than Catalonia has received.
In 2017, Catalonia’s regional parliament declared independence in a vote with an overwhelming majority, and the Spanish government declared a national emergency, arresting several separatist leaders and causing others to flee into exile. This government oppression from Spain left a sour taste in the mouths of voters, who saw a socialist authoritarian regime rip their will from them.
This overreach was coupled with a wave of immigrants into Spain, much like other countries of Europe, facing a population replacement by refugee Africans and Muslims. Before the pandemic, Spain suffered a job loss rate of one in five workers, with immigrants being hit the hardest in the market. This caused the socialist Spanish government to offer huge welfare payments, which continued into the COVID-19 pandemic, where the country took another huge economic hit.
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With all of Spain's problems, Sanchez and his party were expected to lose power but held onto a narrow edge as they made a deal in recent months with Basque and Catalonian separatist parties in the government to secure a slim majority coalition, despite Sanchez’s party losing a drastic amount of power.
In Spain, it’s tough to unseat a government as laws will continue policies from the previous year, even when a party has a minority. If the government cannot pass a budget, it automatically reverts. With a plurality in parties as the country suffers now, the default is that the socialists win even through their loss.
Sanchez’s securing of power required him to agree to amnesty for the Catalonian separatists who have been jailed since 2017, a proposal that conservatives claim is an unconstitutional breach of powers and caused some of the biggest protests in Spain before Sanchez was re-confirmed as Prime Minister on November 17, with 170,000 people taking to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction.
One would think that Sanchez would be careful about further dividing Spain. Instead, he took shots at right-wing leaders abroad, stating at a rally, “We demand a tolerant, social justice, feminist, environmentalist Spain. No Trump, no Milei, no Bolsanero, no Wilders, no Feijóo, no Abascal."
It appears the Spanish leader is panicking in his demand for tolerance, and it shows that even with a tenuous grip on power, he will display no such virtues for his opposition. Spain is set for several more tumultuous years until its next national elections.
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