Elections in Spain could be decided by a sparrow in exile

Finally, the bad Spanish election campaign is over

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Four party leaders, naked and sweaty draped, were slapped in the Puerta de Alcalá square. Greenpeace was behind it Breda Banners 14 Meters Which appeared in the recent surge of the Spanish election campaign. A montage of those in power, all equally crippled by climate change and the rising heat.

For the past month, temperatures in Madrid have been close to 40 degrees Celsius every day. The city is always dry, and is located in the middle of the country without any sign of the lake or the sea. All that is offered is burning asphalt and wide streets. Shadows from the scattered roads don’t stand a chance.

Similar to the Swedish elections

The elections took place last Sunday but nothing has been decided yet. The situation is almost eerily similar to the Swedish one. The large conservative Partido Popular wants to form a government with the far-right Vox, but unlike the Swedish moderates, they have not become big enough to get a majority. Nor has the current Social Democratic Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez come up with an alternative.

No one won and leaders of the left and right alike declared themselves the winners. Well, Parliament doesn’t open until August 17th. Until then, both of them have to try to get the majority that can accept them.

Many breathed a sigh of relief when the election results were announced. Vox has shrunk from 15 to 12 percent, and the path to government power for right-wing extremists looks thorny.

Battle on the facades

Now, on top of that, the bad campaigning is over. The party’s four naked—admittedly only naked—leaders were part of a battle fought out on the facades of Madrid. In June, Vox placed the wallpaper of Madrid’s longest street with a giant hand that threw the Pride flag, a feminist symbol, the 2030 Agenda Climate Goals slogan, and the Catalan flag into a trash can. And just this, communist science too.

A company linked to the Spanish Nazi movement also raised a huge billboard with the message that Pedro Sanchez should be deported to Morocco.

Decisive vote in Catalonia

They will be disappointed. The truth is that Sanchez has as good a chance as the right-wing alternative of succeeding in forming a government. Everyone will have the same difficulty. Sanchez needs to bring together all the different Spanish independence movements – from the left-wing ERC to Juntes, the Catalan party whose eccentric leader Charles Puigdemont lives in exile in Brussels.

The question is whether Sanchez can really promise a referendum on Catalan independence. Otherwise, the country may be forced to hold new elections.

Sweaty for everyone involved, quite simply.