STORY: Sanchez's strategy to call a snap election largely successful:expert
DATELINE: July 25, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:36
LOCATION: BARCELONA, Spain
CATEGORY: POLITICS
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of the PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
3. various of Pedro Sanchez, the Socialist Party leader of Spain
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
5. various of the audience at the election event
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
7. wide shots of the audience at the election event
8. SOUNDBITE 4 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
 
STORYLINE:
 
Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez "survived" his political duel with conservative People's Party (PP) leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo in the early general election on Sunday, and as no party emerged with a clear majority, there is even the possibility that the Socialist leader could continue to be the head of the same government, a Spanish political expert told Xinhua in an interview on Monday.
 
Feijoo's party won 136 seats and almost 8.1 million votes in the election, but doesn't have a majority, while a drop in support for the extreme right-wing Vox party, who claimed 33 seats, means together they are short of the 176 seats needed to control the Spanish Congress.
 
SOUNDBITE 1 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
"The Spanish right thought it was going to finish Sanchez off. While I wouldn't say Sanchez has emerged completely in good shape, he has survived this electoral tie, and it's even possible Sanchez could repeat the government he has now."
 
Sanchez brought the general election forward from December to July after his Socialist Party's poor performance in the local and regional elections on May 28, while its main rival, the PP, made significant gains.
 
SOUNDBITE 2 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
"If Sanchez hadn't called an early election, during the period from the local and regional elections until December, when the general election was going to take place, he would have become what the Americans call a lame duck leader. In calling an early election, party members had no choice but to back the party leader and could not criticize him during the electoral period, so this is one reason to call an early election, and it seems it has worked, not perfectly, but well enough for Sanchez to continue governing."
 
According to Pin, the result of Sunday's election, which saw a split Parliament emerges with no clear governing majority after Sanchez's Socialists won 122 seats and the PP won 136, showing that Sanchez's strategy to call a snap election was largely successful.
 
With neither of the two large parties gaining the 176 seats needed for an absolute majority in the country's Parliament, they will now have to look for support from smaller parties in the chamber, which will in return demand concessions.
 
SOUNDBITE 3 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
"The two alternatives facing Spanish politicians are either to make a government with the same dynamic we have seen until now, of confrontation between two opposite sides of Spain, or to try to make a government of consensus."
 
According to Pin, the fact that the Socialists and the PP gained similar levels of support from voters provides an unexpected opportunity to buck the trend in Spanish politics and seek a level of cooperation.
 
SOUNDBITE 4 (Spanish): JOSE RAMON PIN, Former politician and emeritus professor at IESE business school
"I think the message from the Spanish voters in this election is that, as one half of the people think one thing and the other half think another, they are telling politicians to find a common ground. Yet, whether the political leaders and politicians will really listen and digest that message is debatable."
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Barcelona, Spain.
(XHTV)