France against a Brexit extension. I'm agree, and this could save Mr Johnson to bury himself alive.
For the good of UK, to help them*. Or to get an advantage in negotiations ?

Was about to say something disgusting about "lancing an abscess", refers to UK literature for this.

Macron is already drooling at the prospect of getting rid of the Brits because this would mean that the countries with a "Northern fiscal philosophy" in the EU would lose their blocking minority.
It would mean that France, Italy etc would have a much easier time plundering Germany, the Netherlands and other solid countries.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Sep 9 2019 04:27am

No, no, i don't think this kind of comment is true, sounds more divisive than anything else.
"Recession in Germany: France spared"

This post was edited by Saucisson6000 on Sep 9 2019 06:10am

Didn't this frog eater say the same thing in March?

I'm not sure if it's a final decision or just for negotiations, but it seems much more "firm" than anything before
- following my readings -

Hopefully you're right and he isn't just pandering to some road blocking peasants again.

Spain will have to repeat general elections on the 10th of November, after president Pedro Sánchez failed in his negotiations to form a new government.

UP and several nationalist and separatist parties were the only ones willing to support Sánchez, but UP demanded to be part of the government and access to several ministries, which was a demand PSOE (Sánchez's party) wasn't willing to accept. UP softened their demands over the past few months, but not to a point where an agreement was possible.

It will be interesting to see who the left wing voters blame... UP for wanting power above an agreement, or PSOE for being absolutely adamant on their stance and showing very little interest in reaching agreements. Most polls predict an even greater victory for PSOE, which is proobably why Sánchez refuse to concede an inch in the negotiations, but we'll see about that.

The only thing that is certain is that turnout will drop, as people are pretty pissed at how our politicians have failed to deliver a government, but we will have to see how what parties are punished the most by this repeat.

Will the PP have a better candidate/platform this time around? Are they even ready yet for another campaign?
And what about the CD?

No party is going to change its candidate; it is essentially the same thing, but with a lower turnout and people pissed off at the politicians (we'll have to see who suffers more in these envioronment... likely UP, PSOE and C's).

Casado (PP) survived the axe due to the good performance of his party in the regional and local elections held on May. PP recovered the city of Madrid, and kept several strategic regions (including the Madrid region), finishing above C's everywhere against most odds. He's still an awful candidate, but he's in much better shape this time around... not because of his merits, but because of the weakness of his rivals for PP's voter niche.

C's carried out a very questionable anti-Sánchez stratgy, blocking any negotiations with them despite being able to form a majority with PSOE, and this is surely going to make them bleed on their left side. Many centrists still voted C's, but it's unlikely that they will repeat as Rivera's leadership is just sending the party further away from the political centre. They essentially offer the same thing as PP now, but just more progressive, less neoliberal and more yuppie-friendly. Several high-ranking and long running members have abandoned ship over the last few months, due to the veto on Sánchez.

And Vox faced got pretty bad results in the regional and local elections, and it seems like a significant chunk of their voter base will go back to PP, in order to deliver a utility vote against the left... which is something the right-wing has traditionally been very prone to doing here in Spain.

So PP is definitely in a much better position this time around... but really, there's no chance of them contesting Sánchez's victory under Casado's leadership. My prediction is that they'll improve their ridiculous 16% from April, but they'll only get something around 20-22%, which would still be their second worst result of all time. However, there is still time for things a to change, so who knows.

Thanks for the summary!

Spanish politics is hard to follow from abroad, but very intriguing. Unfortunately, our news outlets rarely report on it, and reading Spanish sources is too painful given my veeery rusted Spanish.