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Spain’s Labour Minister launches new political movement

Spain's popular Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz Friday launched a new leftist political movement ahead of general elections expected in late 2023, vowing a new way of doing politics.

Published: 9 July 2022 08:02 CEST
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Economy Yolanda Diaz
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Economy Yolanda Diaz arrives for the presentation of the "Sumar" consultation platform, at the Matadero cultural centre in Madrid on July 8, 2022. (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Diaz said she would go on a nationwide listening tour to gather ideas about what people want for the country, and then decide whether the movement would take part in the next polls with her at the helm.

“In this citizens’ movement, I am just one more piece. You are the protagonists and if you want I will step up,” she told a crowd of around 5,000 people gathered at a Madrid cultural centre.

Diaz said the new movement called “Sumar”, which means “to add” in Spanish, would seek “a new social contract” and work to end to the politics of “confrontation”.

Politics should be about “extending a hand, and then being able to reach agreements that change people’s lives,” she added.

Diaz currently represents the far-left Podemos party, the junior partner in Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority coalition government.

Polls consistently indicate she is Spain’s most popular politician.

As labour minister, she was responsible for a recent labour reform which is credited with a sharp fall in the number of temporary job contracts.

She also oversaw a generous job furlough scheme at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which ensured people had an income even when large parts of the economy were closed due to lockdowns.

The launch of the new political movement comes as both the Socialists and Podemos have slumped in the polls, with Spain battered by high inflation as is the case across Europe.

The main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) have overtaken the Socialists as Spain’s most popular party, according to a poll published Monday in daily newspaper El Pais.

The PP, which in April picked a moderate new leader, had 27.4 percent support, ahead of the Socialist at 26.3 percent.

Podemos was in fourth place, behind far-right party Vox.

The PP last month secured a landslide win in a regional election in Andalusia, winning an absolute majority of seats in the former Socialist stronghold.

 It will now govern the southern region, Spain’s most populous, on its own for the first time.

READ ALSO: Who is the communist shaking up Spanish politics?

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Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

After a decade on the Spanish throne, King Felipe VI is steadily growing in popularity. If things were ever to turn sour, could the Spanish public and government actually oust the monarch and turn Spain into a republic?

Published: 17 June 2024 17:15 CEST
Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

King Felipe VI is set to celebrate a decade on the Spanish throne. He became king on June 19th 2014 following the abdication of his scandal-ridden father, former King Juan Carlos.

This meant that Felipe took over the crown needing to somewhat rehabilitate the public image of la Casa Real. According to polling data released to coincide with his decade as king, it seems he’s done a decent enough job of it so far. In fact, after 10 years on the throne his approval rating has grown.

READ ALSO: What do Spaniards think of their royal family?

Felipe obtained an average score of 6.6 among Spaniards polled, surpassing, for the first time, the 6.5 mark. This is according to a survey carried out by the IMOP Insights Institute for Vanitatis.

In fact, after a decade the majority of Spaniards approve of the King’s performance: 46.4 percent have a positive view of his work, compared to 20.9 percent who are critical or hold a negative view.

Older people generally have more favourable views of Felipe and the monarchy, whereas under 25s are the only group with a negative opinion of him.

In terms of regional breakdown, the most pro-Felipe part of the country was found to be Andalusia and the least, to the surprise of absolutely nobody in Spain, was Catalonia.

Many royal commentators in Spain argue that Felipe, along with his daughter, Princess of Asturias Leonor, have taken big steps to restoring the Spanish crown’s credibility.

That Felipe’s personal approval rating has grown over time is testament to that, and positive ratings, especially after a decade in the public eye, is something most politicians could only dream of.

That is to say, there doesn’t seem to be any danger of Spaniards turning on their king for now. But what if Spanish public opinion changed over time and suddenly Spain did want to become a republic?

Legally, constitutionally speaking, could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Spain’s Queen Letizia attend a ceremony for the Spanish Crown Princess of Asturias. Photo: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP.

The steps to a republic

Even if Spaniards themselves wanted it, transitioning from a constitutional monarchy to a republic involves a lot of steps that make it highly unlikely, perhaps even impossible.

The change would require two-thirds support in both chambers of the Spanish Congress, something that is very unlikely in the current political climate. Such consensus across both houses is very, very rare.

But, theoretically speaking, to get rid of the king the Spanish legislature would first need to amend Article 1 of the título preliminar of the Spanish Constitution, which outlines the state structure and clearly says that: “the form of the Spanish state is a parliamentary monarchy”.

To do this, the government or Congress would have to call for a vote on constitutional reform in the Congress of Deputies and it would have to pass with a qualified majority, that is, with a majority of two thirds or more, which is equivalent to 234 or more deputies.

READ ALSO: How much do Spain’s king and royal family make?

It would then have to be ratified in the Senate with the same qualified majority. Of the 265 senators, 177 would have to be in favour.

But it doesn’t end there. If both chambers agree, Congress would be dissolved, a general election would have to be called, and the voting would have to be repeated among the new deputies.

However, there’s still one final hurdle: a general referendum. The people’s referendum is meant to function as a sort of fail-safe or quality control on the actions of the legislature, especially on such a huge constitutional question.

Javier Tajadura, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of the Basque Country, told Spanish website Newtral that “the referendum serves as a form of citizen control of what the Cortes want to carry out, and it must be carried out after the votes [in both houses] have been taken.”

If, after all the votes in Congress pass with suitable majorities, the referendum also results in a yes and it is undeniable that Spaniards want to change from monarchy to republic, Spain would become a republic.

Then the debate would shift to whether Spain would need an entirely new constitution, or it would need to make some (pretty huge) changes to the pre-existing constitution of 1978.

So, yes. Spain could, in theory, become a republic. Clearly, the Spanish system has a lot of checks and balances embedded within it that makes moving from a monarchy to a republic constitutionally complicated, politically unlikely, and, in realistic terms, very improbable to the point of being almost impossible.

As Miguel Ángel Cabellos, Professor of Constitutional law at the University of Girona, puts it: “Beyond the fact that it is a change of an essential and core element of the political system, which would also radically divide society, the truth is that from a legal point of view the difficulties are very notable, one could almost say insurmountable in practice.”

READ ALSO: The one thing to know about each of Spain’s ‘crazy’ kings and queens

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