The failure of the Frankenstein Government chaired by Sánchez

The Frankenstein Government that allowed the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and his appointment as President of the Government by Royal Decree 828/2023, of November 16, (BOE of November 17) by absolute majority in the first vote (legitimacy of origin), seems to be heading towards its end due to the lack of necessary parliamentary support to be able to govern when the seven members of Junts withdraw their trust (legitimacy of exercise).

He Resistance manual de Sánchez prevents him from throwing in the towel so quickly and has said since his American tour, in Brazil, that he will govern with or without budgets until 2027. A Government without budgets for three years would have been blown up in any European country.

Look at France where Macron has had four prime ministers “burned” since 2024, as a result of not approving the budgets along with other causes. The same thing happens in Belgium (although it is not a model to follow) and also in Holland with elections held last Sunday, November 2, and the rest of the countries. Well When there is no majority to support it, the Government falls. It is the rule of a parliamentary system of government. It is true that as I pointed out a few weeks ago, the motion of censure could bring him down. But it does not serve, at least until now, to articulate another majority

Why doesn’t Sánchez recognize his lack of parliamentary majority and call elections? There are several reasons.

The first, his attachment to power is manifest. They will have to fire him because he won’t leave. Secondly, because of the difficult judicial situation that his family environment faces. Surely he understands that from a position of power he can maneuver better than if he resigned. Finally, he considers that criticism of the opposition parties (PP and VOX) can destabilize them, especially if after Mazón’s resignation in Valencia, the situation seems to benefit him.

From an institutional point of view, Sánchez does not leave or does not call elections because he considers himself the Caesarist leader of the Country, since in a parliamentary Monarchy like ours the figure of the King, as the President of the Government insists on making it seem, is de facto protocolary and politically dependent on the government.

For this reason, he ignores the King’s formal acts or sends him to the inaugurations of uncomfortable presidents in Latin America or to visits of interest, such as the one the Kings have begun in China these days.

The King exercises his symbolic and representative power very neutrally, but perhaps the reviled King Emeritus Juan Carlos I would have put Sánchez in his place like Chávez at the Ibero-American summit with Zapatero as president. They were other times!

For all these reasons, Sánchez feels like a republican President in a Monarchy without powers and considers that his legitimation does not come from the Parliament that elected him but from the Caesarism that permeates his figure. Big mistake!

For this reason he intends resist governing without Parliament, without budgets, with some decree laws that the PP opposition would be forced to vote or abstain (increase in pensions, civil servants, etc.) and demonstrate that there was a before and after in the presidency of Spanish democracy when Sánchez came to power.

This interpretation of our current constitutional regime is not a caricature, but a reality. No President with executive powers, verbi gratia, Macron in France, Trump in the US, can allow himself to govern outside the Chambers. It is true that the American system of separation of powers itself (checks and balances) is greatly weakened today by a populist President that the constitution of 1787 is taken for granted, and that it acts, on occasions, outside the Magna Carta and the Law.

Even so, he cannot govern without approving the budgets. The existing system in the Federal Administration without automatic budget extension as in our system, has collapsed federal services such as that related to air traffic controllers and which runs the risk of conditioning the transportation of American families on the eve of Thanksgiving Day.

If Sánchez continues on the path he has taken, ignoring the constitutional legitimation of the Parliament that elected him, he runs the risk of delegitimizing himself and becoming a President of Government outside the Constitution, which only time will be able to determine if such extravagance corresponds to attributing more serious behavior to him that affects his responsibility.

In a situation like this, only popular disaffection as has happened with Mazón in Valencia can make him resign or call elections. But power traps and conditions, as his republican co-religionist Indalecio Prieto said in a graphic phrase.