Feijóo's 140 seats fall short: Investiture stalls as PSOE relies on separatists

Feijóo wins without governing: PSOE relies on separatists

How do you win an election and end up unable to govern? The PP has made it clear since July 23: they are the largest party with around 140 seats, but lack a majority. Feijóo’s investiture arrives at the Congress without the necessary numbers, while the PSOE and Sumar secured nearly 11 million votes, leaving the chamber's key in the hands of separatist groups. In this scenario, one participant summarizes the dominant thesis: Pedro Sánchez "has everything closed and well closed," and the Popular candidate is a political corpse before even being voted on.

Nearly 140 seats that are insufficient for investiture

The post-electoral analysis count—defended by a forum user—places the PP at around 140 seats and Vox as the third force in Congress. With these figures, investiture requires pacts that the winning party has not finalized: there is no absolute majority, and no one has offered an abstention. The right bloc, combined, does not reach the threshold; nor does the left bloc without nationalist parties. One current holds that the PP wasted time debating the distribution of the Congress Board with Vox instead of securing investiture; another responds that the problem is fundamental, and nearly 11 million voters voted as they did.

The Congress Board as a dress rehearsal for investiture

Some take for granted that the Board fell to the socialists with the support of separatist groups, reading this majority as a dress rehearsal for what comes next: those who lend votes to preside over Congress will later lend them to invest the Prime Minister, according to the most repeated forecast. The result, under this reading, is that seats and the price of each support have become the real axis of the legislature, ahead of the program.

The campaign that will be studied in universities

The autopsy of the popular result has been harsh, with a shared diagnosis: the PP competed for the center, distanced itself from Vox, and ended up handing the narrative to its rival. A campaign that, according to this reading, demobilized the voter most critical of the Government for antiestéticar of being associated with the far-right. The blame extends to those who pact with Vox in communities and town halls while refusing the pact in Madrid. And one conclusion repeats: with the right divided, the alternative for change does not return.

Ayuso as a replacement and Madrid's ceiling

Succession is in the air. Part of the analysis points to Isabel Díaz Ayuso as the natural successor, arguing that she connects better and does not carry the fatigue of this campaign. The objection from her critics is equally clear: there is no indication that she would improve the nearly 140 seats, and outside the Community of Madrid, her results would be different. Nor does the memory of how Pablo Casado's departure was resolved help, an episode that has been mentioned with a hint of sarcasm.

The pandemic bill: fines up to 60,000 euros

Among the reasons for the rejection of Feijóo is one unrelated to July 23: the management of the pandemic. One participant reproaches that he tried to impose vaccination with fines of 60,000 euros, remembered as an attack on individual freedom. It is debated whether this memory weighs more than inflation or insecurity, and there is no agreement. Some hold that those with stable jobs better withstand price hikes, while others respond that civil servants and pensioners also suffer from inflation and insecurity.

11 million votes and the "like Venezuela" forecast

Not all diagnosis is complacent with the right. Against the idea that the PP was a victim of an unfair system, the vote data appears: the PSOE and Sumar gathered around 11 million ballots, many in Andalusia and Extremadura, territories where the PP aspires to govern. Regarding the future scenario, there are two opposing prophecies: one participant claims the right will never govern again, "like Venezuela," while another states that the PSOE chokes outside Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Mortgaged legislature or elections in January

There are two exits: an electoral repetition scheduled between December and January, or a legislature in which the PSOE pays for each vote with concessions to nationalist and separatist groups. Some also hold that the PSOE has fewer and fewer deputies outside communities with their own political party.