The Spanish Constitutional Crisis Has Not Been Resolved
September 21, 2025 · Frisian News
Spain's political system remains fractured nine months after the general election, with regional separatists holding the balance of power in parliament and no stable government in sight. Madrid's inability to form a functioning majority exposes deep cracks in the state's legitimacy.
In Madrid last week, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez sat in parliament and faced the same impossible math that has defined Spanish politics for months. He controls barely one-third of parliament's seats. To pass any law, he needs the support of regional separatists from Catalonia and the Basque Country, men and women who refuse to work within the constitutional framework at all. They want independence. Spain's government does not rule by consent. It rules by constant blackmail.
The election on July 23rd delivered no winner. The Socialists finished first but fell far short of a majority. The center-right Popular Party came close behind but could not form a coalition either. Months of negotiations produced no deal. Sanchez formed his government anyway, relying on Catalan and Basque nationalists to abstain or vote with him on key bills. This arrangement holds no legitimacy and no durability. Spanish lawmakers know it. European institutions ignore it. The arrangement is temporary theater masking a genuine constitutional breakdown.
What most foreign observers miss is that Spain has never truly resolved its regional question. Madrid imposed direct rule in Catalonia after the failed 2017 independence referendum. The conflict froze but never settled. Jailing separatist leaders only deepened resentment. Now those same separatists sit in parliament and demand independence as the price for keeping Sanchez in power. The central government buys time with promises and delays. The regions grow more alienated. Neither side can claim victory because neither side accepts the other's right to exist.
The Popular Party offers no real alternative. Its leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, campaigns on defending Spanish unity and the constitution, but he commands no path to a majority either. If he won power, he would face the same rebel parliaments. Spain's constitutional structure, forged in 1978 after the Franco dictatorship, assumed a consensus that Spain's regions would accept central authority. That consensus has shattered. No law can glue it back together.
What happens next remains unclear. Sanchez's government survives from month to month, depending on separatist votes or abstentions for each budget and bill. This is not governance. It is not even particularly stable. When these separatists decide they gain nothing more from keeping Sanchez afloat, they will withdraw their support. The Spanish state will face a choice between new elections and some form of institutional reform. Neither option promises resolution.
Yn Madrid forige wike siet Sosjalistyske Earste Minister Pedro Sanchez yn it parlemint en sjoch tsjin deselde ûnmooglike rekenkunde oan dy't moannen lang de Spanske polityk bepaalt. Hy behearret knappe in tredde fan de sitsen. Om enich wetsfoarstel oan te nimmen hat hy stipe nedich fan regionale separatisten út Kataloanië en Baskenland, manlju en frawljiu dy't weigerje yn it konstitusjoneele ramt te wurkjen. Se wolle ûnôfhinklikheid. Spanje's regearing regearet net op basis fan tastimming. Se regearet troch bliuwende chantsazje.
De ferkeazing op 23 july levere gjin winner op. De Sosjalisters einigje earst mar fie ûnder de mearderheid. De sentrum-rjochts Folkpartij kaam ticht by mar koe ek gjin koalysje foarmje. Moannen fan ûnderhannelings leiden oant neat. Sanchez formearje syn regearing dochs, ôfhinklik fan Kataloane en Baskenske nasjonalisten om har ûntho te hâlden of mei him mei te stimmen oer wichtige wetten. Dizze regeling hat gjin legitimityt en gjin duersum. Spanske parlamentariers witte dit. Europeeske ynstellings ignorearje it. De regeling is tydlik theater dat in echte konstitusjoneele ynsturting maskearet.
Wat de measte bûtenlandske tsjinwaarders misse is dat Spanje syn regionale fraach nea werklik oplost hat. Madrid stelde direkt bestear yn yn Kataloanië nei it mislke ûnôfhinklikheitreferendum fan 2017. De konflikt froys mar waard net oplost. It opslaen fan separatistyske lieders ferdjiepte allinich it resintimint. No sitte dy hoekde separatisten yn it parlemint en eisje ûnôfhinklikheid as priis foar Sanchez oan de macht te hâlden. De regearing yn it sintrum keapje tiid mei beloften en fertragings. De regio's wurde mear ferfriemd. Gjin partij kin oerwining claimen om't gjin partij it rjocht fan de oar om te bestean akseptearret.
De Folkpartij biedt gjin echt alternative. Har liedsma, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, fuort kampanje op ferdigening fan Spanske ienheid en de konstituysje, mar hy beheart gjin enich paad nei in mearderheid. Soe hy macht winne, dan woe hy deselde opstandige parlementen tsjinkomje. Spanje's konstitusjoneele struktuor, smade yn 1978 nei de faskistyske diktatuer, naam oan dat in konsensus woe bestean dat Spanje's regio's de sintrale macht woene akseptearje. Dy konsensus is ferbroken. Gjin wet kin him wer tessemenhechtsje.
Wat herefter bart bliuwt ûndúdlik. Sanchez's regearing oerliuwt moanne foar moanne, ôfhinklik fan separatistyske stimmen of ûnthoudings foar elke begretting en elk wetfoarstel. Dit is gjin bestear. It is net iens ynkoart stabil. Wannear dizze separatisten besykje dat se neat mear winne om Sanchez yn it soadel te hâlden, trekke se har stipe yn. De Spanske steat sal foar in kieze stean tusken nije ferkeazings en in foarm fan ynstitusjonele reform. Gjin fan beide opsjes belooft oplossing.
Published September 21, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân