40. Epilogue (2015-2025)
The Spanish politics that followed Sánchez's victory in 2015 were marked by an increasing turn to extremist positions as the PCP moved further right to the right and Mas attempted to do so with the Liberals, until he was ousted from power in the Party Congress of 2016. After all, he had led the downfall of the party since 2005 and this, eventually, forced him to resign. His replacement was Alberto Nuñez Feijoo who, in his brief tenure (2016-2020), attempted to keep the party in the center while flirting with the PCP, which, by then, was busy fighting EP for supremacy on the extreme right. Feijoo was almost successful in his attempt, but his duplicity and his secret deals first with Arrimadas and Abascal and then with the replacement of Arrimadas (Ignacio Aguado) placed him in an awkward position when they were aired by the Spanish press in 2018. Thus, by 2020, the Spanish right parties were in complete disarray, with EP on the verge of extinction after Abascal, Ortega Smith and Espinosa de los Monteros ruined their party with their troubles with the Spanish justice (Abascal would be the first of them three to go to prison, in 2019, charged with income tax evasion) and the PCP loosing support fast. This should have helped Aguado to reinforce his position as the leader of the Spanish right, but his own weakness, misgivings and, finally, his damming relations with Abascal, forced his resignation in 2020 and was replaced by the white hope of the Spanish right, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Ironically, the further radicalization of the right parties and their eventual demise only seemed to bolster Sánchez's position as man of peace and dialogue... until this peaceful bubble exploded in 2018 with the Catalan demands for an independence referendum, which eventually took place in 2021. To Sanchez's relief, the "No" option won with 55.3% of the popular vote. However, Portabella, even if he acknowledged the defeat, wasted no time to state that the Catalan nationalists had lost only one battle, but not the whole war, as he proved when he demanded another referendum in 2026. Sánchez then had to fight the same battle in the Basque Country the following year (2022, winning a gain, but by a narrow margin (50.58 %). Thus started the reform process of Spain that could either end in the reinforcement of Spain as a state or in its balkanization as all the attempts of Sánchezs to reproduce the German solution to the independence demands of Bavaria failed to have any impact in Spain.
Of course, the Spanish economy resented from this uncertainty. Thus after greatly growing with the stabilization of the world market and the German recovery (even if the French return to business was only to happen by 2024), it began to show signs of paralysis towards 2020. Ironically, only the support of the British Prime Minister, Yvette Cooper and of the British pound helped Spain to keep growing. However, by then, even if Sánchez was still unwilling to accept the fact, Spain had been reduced to being ruled from London. Sánchez could still pull all the triggers in local politics, but the key to the foreign and economic policies was kept in No 10. In exchange, Cooper gave her fullest support to Sánchez attempts to keep Spain together. However, it was not enough. The Spanish average citizen began to grow tired of the endless reforms and tax rises as Sánchez fought desperate battles to keep the Spanish GNP growing, the inflation under control and the levels of unemployment at bay. In the first task he had moderate success until 2023, but in the other two he failed by a great deal and he, with death in his heart, had to call for elections. By then Cooper had been replaced by Douglas Alexander, who was less than enthusiastic about saving Spain at the expense of the British taxpayer and wondered why Spain could not follow the same path that had saved France, even if at a great social cost and by the creation of a greater social divide. Meanwhile, the United States, happy on the other side of the pond, kept their back turned to the world since 2016 and were quite happy with that.
To define the Spanish elections of 2014 as the closest thing to the end of an age would be the understatement of the century. With the remnants of the right gathered together around Díaz Ayuso and her coalition party, the "Unión Nacional Española" (UNE - Spanish National Union), and with Sánchez's political reputation in tatters, it was clear that Pablo Iglesias and Podemos were to win the elections. When Díaz Ayuso coined her motto for the elections ("Libertad o Comunismo" - Freedom or Communism) and began to talk about the fight "between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness" and of the Armageddon that would fall upon Spain in case of the victory of Podemos, the electoral campaign took a darker tone. However, on the election day, in spite of all the tricks of Díaz Ayuso, the Spanish citizens voted for Iglesias. With 48% of the votes and 202 seats, Iglesias began to organize his government without the need of any alliance. Even then, he offered an open hand to the PSOE. Sánchez had been replaced in the leadership by a former member of Podemos, Íñigo Errejón. However, the PSOE, with hardly 4.02% of the vote and 4 seats, it was obvious that would have little weight in the new government and Errejón, out of pride, refused Iglesias' offer. Meanwhile, in the right, the new leader of UNE, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who had replaced Díaz Ayuso after she had to resign due to some health troubles, saw himself powerless, with barely 107 seats and 26,36% of the vote.
Then, on July 18, 2025, Spain went to vote again when Iglesias asked the country if they wanted to keep being a Federal Republic or to become the People's Republic of Spain and the world held its breath
THE END.
The Spanish politics that followed Sánchez's victory in 2015 were marked by an increasing turn to extremist positions as the PCP moved further right to the right and Mas attempted to do so with the Liberals, until he was ousted from power in the Party Congress of 2016. After all, he had led the downfall of the party since 2005 and this, eventually, forced him to resign. His replacement was Alberto Nuñez Feijoo who, in his brief tenure (2016-2020), attempted to keep the party in the center while flirting with the PCP, which, by then, was busy fighting EP for supremacy on the extreme right. Feijoo was almost successful in his attempt, but his duplicity and his secret deals first with Arrimadas and Abascal and then with the replacement of Arrimadas (Ignacio Aguado) placed him in an awkward position when they were aired by the Spanish press in 2018. Thus, by 2020, the Spanish right parties were in complete disarray, with EP on the verge of extinction after Abascal, Ortega Smith and Espinosa de los Monteros ruined their party with their troubles with the Spanish justice (Abascal would be the first of them three to go to prison, in 2019, charged with income tax evasion) and the PCP loosing support fast. This should have helped Aguado to reinforce his position as the leader of the Spanish right, but his own weakness, misgivings and, finally, his damming relations with Abascal, forced his resignation in 2020 and was replaced by the white hope of the Spanish right, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Ironically, the further radicalization of the right parties and their eventual demise only seemed to bolster Sánchez's position as man of peace and dialogue... until this peaceful bubble exploded in 2018 with the Catalan demands for an independence referendum, which eventually took place in 2021. To Sanchez's relief, the "No" option won with 55.3% of the popular vote. However, Portabella, even if he acknowledged the defeat, wasted no time to state that the Catalan nationalists had lost only one battle, but not the whole war, as he proved when he demanded another referendum in 2026. Sánchez then had to fight the same battle in the Basque Country the following year (2022, winning a gain, but by a narrow margin (50.58 %). Thus started the reform process of Spain that could either end in the reinforcement of Spain as a state or in its balkanization as all the attempts of Sánchezs to reproduce the German solution to the independence demands of Bavaria failed to have any impact in Spain.
Of course, the Spanish economy resented from this uncertainty. Thus after greatly growing with the stabilization of the world market and the German recovery (even if the French return to business was only to happen by 2024), it began to show signs of paralysis towards 2020. Ironically, only the support of the British Prime Minister, Yvette Cooper and of the British pound helped Spain to keep growing. However, by then, even if Sánchez was still unwilling to accept the fact, Spain had been reduced to being ruled from London. Sánchez could still pull all the triggers in local politics, but the key to the foreign and economic policies was kept in No 10. In exchange, Cooper gave her fullest support to Sánchez attempts to keep Spain together. However, it was not enough. The Spanish average citizen began to grow tired of the endless reforms and tax rises as Sánchez fought desperate battles to keep the Spanish GNP growing, the inflation under control and the levels of unemployment at bay. In the first task he had moderate success until 2023, but in the other two he failed by a great deal and he, with death in his heart, had to call for elections. By then Cooper had been replaced by Douglas Alexander, who was less than enthusiastic about saving Spain at the expense of the British taxpayer and wondered why Spain could not follow the same path that had saved France, even if at a great social cost and by the creation of a greater social divide. Meanwhile, the United States, happy on the other side of the pond, kept their back turned to the world since 2016 and were quite happy with that.
To define the Spanish elections of 2014 as the closest thing to the end of an age would be the understatement of the century. With the remnants of the right gathered together around Díaz Ayuso and her coalition party, the "Unión Nacional Española" (UNE - Spanish National Union), and with Sánchez's political reputation in tatters, it was clear that Pablo Iglesias and Podemos were to win the elections. When Díaz Ayuso coined her motto for the elections ("Libertad o Comunismo" - Freedom or Communism) and began to talk about the fight "between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness" and of the Armageddon that would fall upon Spain in case of the victory of Podemos, the electoral campaign took a darker tone. However, on the election day, in spite of all the tricks of Díaz Ayuso, the Spanish citizens voted for Iglesias. With 48% of the votes and 202 seats, Iglesias began to organize his government without the need of any alliance. Even then, he offered an open hand to the PSOE. Sánchez had been replaced in the leadership by a former member of Podemos, Íñigo Errejón. However, the PSOE, with hardly 4.02% of the vote and 4 seats, it was obvious that would have little weight in the new government and Errejón, out of pride, refused Iglesias' offer. Meanwhile, in the right, the new leader of UNE, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who had replaced Díaz Ayuso after she had to resign due to some health troubles, saw himself powerless, with barely 107 seats and 26,36% of the vote.
Then, on July 18, 2025, Spain went to vote again when Iglesias asked the country if they wanted to keep being a Federal Republic or to become the People's Republic of Spain and the world held its breath
THE END.
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