Spain’s PP nominates ‘hardliner’ as lead EU candidate

6 months ago 22

Dolors Montserrat, recently a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D), will lead the conservative Partido Popular’s (PP/EPP) EU election list amid a new polls suggesting that the centre-right has a lead.

According to the Sigma Dos poll for El Mundo, the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, would gather 35.7% of the votes, equivalent to 23 seats, compared to the 20.2% and 12 seats that the conservative formation obtained in the 2019 European elections, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

The poll shows Sánchez’s ruling PSOE would come in second, with 28.9% of the vote and 19 seats, compared to the 32.9% of the vote and 20 seats the progressive formation won in 2019.

The far-right VOX party, the third largest force in the Spanish parliament, would also be the third largest Spanish force at the EU level – where it is part of the ECR group chaired by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. However, this time, it is set to win 11.9% of the vote and 11 seats, an increase over the 6.2% and three seats it won in 2019.

The progressive Sumar platform, led by Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, would secure 9.5% of the vote and six seats in the EU elections.

Meanwhile, the Ahora Repúblicas coalition made up of the separatist parties of the far-left Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) in the Catalan government (Generalitat), the Basque separatist party EH-Bildu and the Galician separatist party BNG, would win 4.1% of the vote and two seats (5.6% and three seats in 2019), according to the El Mundo poll.

The almost defunct left-wing party Podemos, a former member of Sumar which left after bitter disputes between its two leaders, would only get 3.1% of the vote and two seats, compared with 11.4% and six seats in the previous elections.

Meanwhile, the right-wing separatist party JxCat, led by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, is polling with 2% of the vote and one seat, down from 4.5% and two seats in 2019.

The EU elections in Spain are marked by two national elections of great importance for the stability of the PSOE-Sumar coalition government, which is directly dependent on the parliamentary backing of the Catalan and Basque separatist forces in Madrid.

After the Basque elections on 21 April, which were won by the moderate nationalist PNV party, which will govern in coalition with the Basque Socialists (PSE-EE), the next crucial elections will be held in Catalonia on Sunday 12 May, where the separatist forces or the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), the favourite in the latest polls, could govern once again, EFE reported.

PP’s lead candidate

Meanwhile, the PP announced on Friday that MEP Dolors Montserrat will head the party’s list for the European elections, a position she already held in 2019.

In recent months, Montserrat has been one of the European Parliament’s most vocal opponents of the amnesty law that the Spanish parliament is set to pass before the summer, a norm of grace which will pardon those responsible for illegal separatist actions in Catalonia between 2012 and 2023, including the serious secession attempt of 2017.

Montserrat’s reappointment means that the ‘European battle’ in Spain will be mainly focused between her and PSOE’s list leader, Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera.

The PP candidate said she would seek to “defend the Spanish people in Europe” and send “a strong message,” which is “that Spain does not endorse the shamelessness of (Spain’s prime minister) Sánchez.”

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)