The Frankenstein government that allowed the installation and appointment of Pedro Sánchez as Head of Government by Royal Decree No. 828/2023, of November 16 (BoE of November 17) by an absolute majority in the first vote (legitimacy of origin), It appears to be heading towards its end due to the lack of the necessary parliamentary support To be able to judge when the Seven Junts withdraw their confidence (legitimacy of the exercise).
he Resistance guide De Sanchez prevents him from giving up so quickly, and he has said since his American tour in Brazil that he will rule with or without budgets until 2027. A government that does not have budgets for three years would have exploded in any European country.
Look at France, where Macron has “burned” four prime ministers since 2024, as a result of not passing budgets among other reasons. The same thing is happening in Belgium (although it is not a role model) and also in the Netherlands with the elections that took place last Sunday, November 2, and the rest of the countries. Good When there is no majority to support it, the government falls. It is the rule of parliamentary system of government. It is true that, as I pointed out a few weeks ago, a motion of censure could bring him down. But it does not serve, at least not yet, to form another majority
Why doesn’t Sánchez acknowledge his lack of a parliamentary majority and call elections? There are several reasons.
First, his attachment to power is clear. They’ll have to fire him because he won’t leave. Secondly, because of the difficult judicial situation facing his family environment. He certainly understands that from a position of power he can maneuver better than if he resigned. Finally, he believes that criticizing the opposition parties (PP and VOX) could destabilize them, especially if the situation seems to be in his favor after Mazzone’s resignation in Valencia.
From an institutional point of view, Sánchez neither leaves nor calls for elections because he considers himself the Tsarist leader of the country, because in a parliamentary monarchy like ours, the figure of the king, as the head of government insists on making it seem, is a de facto protocol figure and politically dependent on the government.
For this reason, he ignores the king’s official actions or sends him to inaugurations of uncomfortable presidents in Latin America or to visits of interest to him, such as those initiated by kings in China these days.
The king exercises his symbolic and representative power in a very neutral manner, but perhaps King Emeritus Juan Carlos I the Cursed would have put Sanchez in his place as Chavez did at the Ibero-American summit where Zapatero was president. They were at other times!
For all these reasons, Sanchez feels like a republican president in a monarchy without powers, and he considers that his legitimacy does not come from the parliament that elected him, but from the tsarism that permeates his personality. Big mistake!
That’s why he intends to Resistance to rule without parliament, without budgets, with few decrees and laws That the PP opposition would have to vote or abstain (increase pensions, civil servants, etc.) and show that there was a before and after the presidency of Spanish democracy when Sánchez came to power.
This interpretation of our current constitutional system is not a caricature, but a reality. Any president who enjoys executive powers, without compensation, such as Macron in France and Trump in the United States, cannot allow himself to rule outside the two chambers. It is true that the American system of separation of powers itself (Checks and balances) It has been greatly weakened today by a populist president That the Constitution of 1787 is taken for granted, that it operates, at times, outside the Magna Carta and the law.
However, he cannot govern without approving budgets. The current system of federal administration without automatic extension of the budget as in ours has led to the collapse of federal services such as those related to air traffic controllers which runs the risk of adapting the transportation of American families on Thanksgiving Eve.
If Sánchez continues on the path he has taken, ignoring the constitutional legitimacy of the Parliament that elected him, he risks delegitimizing himself and becoming an extraconstitutional head of government, and only time will tell whether this extravagance is consistent with the attribution of more serious behavior that affects his responsibility.
In a situation like this, only popular discontent, as happened with Mazzone in Valencia, can push him to resign or call elections. But the traps of power and its conditions, as his Republican colleague in religion Indalecio Prieto said in a graphic phrase.
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