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Editor's Note: Pedro Brieger is an Argentine journalist and sociologist, author of more than seven books and contributor to publications on international issues. He currently serves as director of NODAL, a portal dedicated exclusively to the news of Latin America and the Caribbean. He collaborated with different national media such as Clarín, El Cronista, La Nación, Página / 12, Profile and for magazines such as News, Somos, Le Monde Diplomatique and Panorama. Throughout his career, Brieger won important awards for his informative work on Argentine radio and television. The opinions expressed in this column are exclusive to the author.
(CNN Spanish) - The recent pre-agreement between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and the United We Can in the Kingdom of Spain to form a government is another example that in politics, horror unites more than love. In fact, love is something very difficult to find in politics, since societies are increasingly complex, diversities seem to expand almost to infinity and it is not possible to find a party that contains the wide range of visions of a society . In the Spanish case after half a year of negotiations and the repetition of an electoral process, a coalition has been formed that is defined as “progressive” although it has numerous points in the nebula.
Not only the Spanish population anxiously awaited the negotiation between these two political forces, but all of Europe, which observes with amazement how Vox's extreme right has also grown considerably in Spain, now with a strong presence in parliament. Years ago it was said that in Spain there was no extreme right-wing party because the most extreme voices were contained within the Popular Party, where followers of Francisco Franco who longed for the dictatorship had been recycled. This has changed.
Since bipartisanship broke down in 2014 with the appearance of Podemos in the elections to the European Parliament - now converted into United We can - and the rise of VOX taking advantage of the decline of the PP, the multiple ghosts of horror appeared. Fear of the growth of Podemos emerged as a leftist force, although difficult to pigeonhole; to the irruption of Catalan independence with massive mobilizations, to the disintegration of the Kingdom or to break a political system based on a monarchy. And now to the extreme right.
The fact that no party even approaches the parliamentary majority and that today no coalition can guarantee stability is the mark of Spanish politics in recent years. Of course, every party would prefer to rule alone. In no country are coalitions desired, they arise out of necessity, as the only way to reach government and power, although it is not the same to form a government as to have the capacity to govern when one is tied to commitments with other parties with whom we must negotiate sometimes with a dog's face.
After the April elections the PSOE and United We were engaged in sterile negotiations that led to a new electoral process and the growth of Vox. In April love did not unite them, but in November they are joined by fear.