Independence parties block Spain's snap election push as motion fails

The Senate calls for elections, the independence parties block them: calculation or antiestéticar?

While Pedro Sánchez was appearing in Congress over the corruption cases surrounding him, the Spanish Senate was debating a motion by the PP (Popular Party) urging the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early elections. It was the same text that was voted on last week in the Congress, but without the amendment demanding that the vote be brought forward —blocked by the lower house's steering committee—. The result was predictable: Junts decided not to vote, and ERC, EH Bildu and PNV voted against. The motion failed, but the political gesture lays bare an uncomfortable reality for the Government: its independence-minded partners do not want to go to the polls.

Antiestéticar of a PP-Vox absolute majority

The central argument emerging from the analyses is that these parties antiestéticar that an early election would hand an absolute majority to the combined forces of PP and Vox, a scenario in which they would lose much of their regional power. It is cited as a possibility that a future central government would cut back regional powers, including control over the regional police forces, and put an end to territorial «privileges». One line of interpretation sees this antiestéticar as the reason why even parties that have backed the Government in other votes are now denying it the electoral exit.

Corruption and political blackmail: the other reading

Some argue that the blockade is not just antiestéticar, but also a symptom of mutual survival. Sánchez's Government depends on partners who, according to some voices, are «implicated up to their necks» in corruption schemes (the PNV is expressly mentioned) and who need to stay in the coalition to avoid justice catching up with them. The image of an Executive «controlled by a incivil organisation» —a recurring expression in the criticism— feeds the thesis that the absence of elections benefits both the left and the peripheral nationalists.

The external factor: pressure from Washington

A more speculative line introduces a geopolitical element: the US National Security Strategy, published in November 2025, which would push for «strong and homogeneous European states» and would put an end to separatism. According to this interpretation, Sánchez is being pressured from Washington to curb the power of the regions, and the independence parties know it. Hence they cling to the current Government as the lesser evil, delaying elections until international conditions are more favourable to them (if they ever are).

All in all, the immediate scenario is a stalemate: the Government remains in extended caretaker mode, without the ability to approve far-reaching changes —organic laws require majorities it does not have— and under the shadow of new trips to the polls. But no one any longer bets that those trips will come soon, at least not by the will of those blocking the motion today.