Spain’s European election will be more Spanish than ever

Political amnesties; Catalonia; corruption; and the sustainability of Pedro Sánchez's national government. Spain's European elections on 9 June are looking decidedly un-European. The vote will come after early regional elections in the Basque Country (21 April), and in Catalonia (12 May) following the failure of the national government to present a budget plan for 2024. The results in both regions could have a destabilising domino effect on the government's precarious legislative majority. 

This is particularly true in Catalonia, whose separatist ERC party (EFA/Greens in the European Parliament) and Junts (the party of former regional president Carles Puigdemont; sits independently) currently support Sánchez's national government. The election outcome could test their will to continue that support.

Spain's European Parliament election will thus be fought more over Spanish issues than over the EU's priorities for the next five years, such as enlargement, migration, the green and digital transitions, and European autonomy in geopolitics and defence.

One exception is the farming question, where both the far-right Vox (ECR in the European Parliament) and the traditional conservative Partido Popular (PP-EPP) are pitting the rural protests against Europe's green agenda. Another is migration, where the right is pushing for an iron-fist policy in contrast to the national government of PSOE (S&D). That government is currently in coalition with a progressive umbrella group called Sumar (led by vice-PM Yolanda Diaz, sits with The Left/Greens) and the populist progressive Podemos (The Left). The latter, following its recent divorce from Sumar, will campaign with its own candidate, Irene Montero.

Montero, until recently Minister for Equality, will try to take advantage of the left lane opened to her by the coalition government. This will imply a tough stance against the hardline border policies embodied by EU High representative for foreign-affairs chief Josep Borrell (PSOE/S&D).

Indeed, both Sumar and Podemos will try to champion human rights and pacifism in the face of fortress Europe and the nascent militarism that has followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the prospect of a US withdrawal from Europe (especially if Donald Trump wins the November election). The profiles of their leading candidates fits these positions: Estrella Galán (Sumar) was director of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), while Montero and Podemos have called for Benjamin Netanyahu to be tried for genocide for his role in the recent bombing of Gaza.

The left aims to mobilise its electorate in the face of a wave of conservatism that threatens to change the balance of power in the European Parliament in the same way that it has already changed the EU Council, where progressive governments are in the minority. It will thus warn against the threat to the EU funds (the post-Covid Recovery and Resilience Facility, and NextGenerationEU) posed by budget cuts under the new fiscal rules.