In 2024, which has just begun, almost 51% of the world's population will vote at the polls. More than seventy countries will hold elections to renew their institutions and decide the color of the executives who will govern in the coming years. Spain is no stranger to these electoral movements that occur after 23-J in a climate of extreme polarization and when relations between the two main parties, PSOE and PP, are still tense due to the amnesty law, despite the agreement to reform article 49 of the Constitution.
The first to go to the polls will be the Galicians on February 18. A litmus test for the popular ones, who want to revalidate the absolute majority and keep Vox out of the institutions, as already happened in 2019. From a personal point of view, these elections are especially important for Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who will rise to a caravan parallel to that of Alfonso Rueda to demonstrate his capacity for strength within his party and also in the community that was his fiefdom until his departure to Madrid to lead the Popular Party.
The PP will be used thoroughly in the Galician elections. It will do so to a lesser extent in the Basque Country, where it is almost certain that Jeltzales and socialists – with the permission of EH Bildu – can revalidate in Ajuria Enea. They are content with maintaining and improving the results, but if there is a date marked in red on the calendar for popular and socialists, also for Junts due to the more than assured presence of former president Carles Puigdemont on the lists, this is June 9. The Sunday in which Europeans are called to the polls to choose the formation of the European Parliament.
Traditionally, these elections arouse little interest among citizens. In 2019, participation, despite increasing by eight points, was 50.7%. But on this occasion, these elections will be the first major national examination of Pedro Sánchez's policies after the pacts with the independentists and the approval of criminal oblivion. The popular ones will raise them in plebiscitary mode: Feijóo-Sánchez. They claim to handle surveys that give them good results and they trust in a harsh vote to punish the socialists, while in the PSOE they hope that the passing of the months will end up diluting the discontent over the amnesty.
The finale of this 2024 could be the Catalan elections. President Pere Aragonès has always expressed his willingness to hold out until the first quarter of next year, but some voices place the call to the polls in November. The post-procés elections will test the change of direction that Catalan society is experiencing and to what extent the pro-independence parties maintain their influence and will be able to understand each other before a PSC that aspires to reach the Generalitat.
