Aftermath!

 

Spain has voted. And it is time to consider what the people of Spain, or at least those people of Spain who could be bothered to vote, have done.

On the positive side it is clear that 71% of the voters did not want Bromo and his bunch of shameless criminals to continue 'governing' this country. The conservative PP party lost 4 million votes compared with their showing in the last election – which at least is something. It shows that relentless discovery of astonishing corruption does have some effect on die-hard right-wing voters. Unfortunately many of those votes were transferred to a nasty little newcomer party in the form of the 'centre-right' C's.

The situation now is that while PP had the largest number of votes (Shame Spain!) it is nowhere near an overall majority. It cannot even form a government with the seats of the C's and it is very difficult to see any of the other parties wanting to link their precarious vote to the toxic poison of PP.

The appalling picture of what happens to small parties when they give one of the larger parties the working majority they need is clearly remembered from the recent fate of the Lib Dems in the UK. Although Bromo (as I call the walking joke of a Prime Minister we have still) is in no way an intellectual equal of That Woman, he has managed to provoke a similar quantity of opprobrium. He has also surrounded himself with a bunch of grotesques as ministers where, when a group photograph of them is taken, the graphic work of Goya comes appropriately to mind, especially in the etching called, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”! Still, it has to be admitted, that when I see a group of incompetent, chiselling, mendacious, arrogant, sneering liars, the 29% of voters who lowered themselves to vote for PP must presumably see stability and competence! God help us all!

Spain is capable of odd alliances. Fifteen or so years ago PP found themselves in government thanks to the support of Catalan (!) and Basque (!) independence parties! I think it is highly unlikely that will happen in this election (!) but PP have shown themselves quite shameless in the way that they have treated reality over the past four years and so I firmly believe them capable of anything, absolutely anything to retain power. It is also in their very immediate interests to keep power, as their misuse of government is the only thing that has kept so many of their illustrious criminal ranks out of prison. Who knows what might happen if actual justice was allowed to operate free from the political manipulation of the ruling party? Especially if they weren't if you see what I mean. After the recent local elections when PP were kicked out of what had been strongholds for many years, the paper shredders were working overtime getting rid of the evidence that might (and should) be used against them!

One of the fundamental problems in Spain is a direct result of Franco. When the dictator finally died the form of democracy that was set up gave the political parties what is now seen to be far too much power. They were thought to be the safe repository of the democratic ideal and, to a certain extent that was true. But, over time, the power of the parties led to its own insidious form of corruption and the judiciary is far too close to the politicians; the separation which is necessary for the fair distribution of justice is woefully lacking in this country.

The use of lists of candidates in elections, where the voter does not put a cross or a number next to a particular candidate, but instead chooses a printed list of candidates from one party is also a disaster. The list is a single party's collection of candidates who could fill all the available seats for a particular area if all the votes were just for them. The order in which the candidates are printed is very important as the number of votes will elect candidates in numerical order progressing down the list. It means that candidates feel much more loyalty to their party than to their electorate, as their position on the list is crucial in their election: the higher up the list you are, the more it is like being in a 'safe seat' in the UK. The lower down you are the more problematic your election becomes. You therefore need to work within the party to ensure that your name is printed as high in the list as possible: the party decides, not the people!

So, we have a 'hung' parliament. Bromo, as the 'winner', will be given the chance to form a government and I shudder with horrified anticipation at what shameless inducements Bromo will offer to future partners in crime to get them to shore up his discredited sleaze.

Happy Christmas to us all!