Spanish General Election Results Require Coalition
Today Spain went to the polls, to elect the 11th Cortes Generales since the restoration of democracy and the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Seeking election for a second term, the conservative People’s Party (PP) under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy remained the largest in parliament, having taken 123 seats in Congress. But they have lost their majority and must now attempt to form a coalition.
The centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), hoping to return to power after four years in opposition, managed just 90 seats in Congress. But in third and fourth place with 69 and 40 seats respectively, the anti-austerity Podemos party and the liberal Citizens party have won their first Congress seats. The results mean the most fragmented parliament in modern Spain, and have been heralded by the leaders of Podemos and Citizens as a shift away from the country’s traditional two-party politics.
The Cortes Generales is the bicameral parliament of Spain, comprised of a lower Congress of Deputies and an upper Senate. Under contest on Sunday were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, and 208 of 266 seats in the Senate, with the remaining 58 seats appointed by regional delegations. The Congress of Deputies possesses greater legislative power than the Senate, and it retains the ability to confirm and dismiss the Prime Minister. Members of Congress are elected according to a version of the d’Hondt method of proportional representation. Congressmen and Senators sit for a maximum term of four years, although this year the general election was delayed as parliament worked to first approve the 2016 budget.
The last general election back in 2011 occurred when Prime Minister Jose Zapatero called snap polls in response to the country’s ongoing financial crisis. Under Zapatero’s successor, Alfredo Rubalcaba, the ruling PSOE were swept from power, attaining the worst results in the party’s history. Their 7,003,511 votes represented a decline of almost 4.3 million on 2008, and resulted in a loss of 59 seats for a total of 110 seats in Congress. In their stead, with 10,866,566 votes, Rajoy and PP won 186 seats and were able to form a majority government.
PP’s losses this year outdo even PSOE’s in 2011. They now find themselves 64 seats worse off in Congress. Rajoy’s government has been criticised over the last four years for the scale of austerity, which has included spending cuts to health and education, tax increases, and an unemployment rate which had risen by early 2013 to a high of 27.16%; eroding civil liberties, including the right to protest; proposing a draft law that would have banned abortion except in cases of rape; and a string of corruption scandals, including the claim that former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas used illegal donations to pay bonuses to senior party members. Rajoy’s policies have, however, returned the Spanish economy to growth.
The electoral system in Spain favours the larger parties. In full, PP won their 123 seats on Sunday with 7,215,752 votes, for 28.7% of the popular vote. PSOE took 90 seats with 5,530,779 votes, or 22% of the popular vote. Podemos won 69 seats with 5,189,163 votes, or 20.7% of the popular vote. And Citizens achieved 40 seats with 3,500,541 votes, 13.9% of the popular vote. Turnout was at around 73%. Rajoy and PP may struggle to form a coalition, as even with the support of Citizens, their most natural allies, they would fall short of the 176 seats required for a parliamentary majority.
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UK MPs Vote to Allow Fracking Beneath National Parks
In controversial circumstances on Wednesday, MPs in the United Kingdom voted to allow fracking for shale gas 1,200 metres below national parks and other protected sites. While drill rigs would still have to be positioned outside the boundaries of these protected areas – including Areas of Outstanding National Beauty, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, and World Heritage Sites – these sites could now face drilling several kilometres deep.
Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is a process of drilling down into the earth to release gas. After a wellbore reaches the required depth, rocks are typically drilled horizontally and fractured when they are injected with a high-pressure water mixture including sand and chemicals. Fractured rocks release the gas inside, which flows out to the head of the well.
As with other areas of oil production, the process of fracking results in waste water, which is difficult to treat and often injected into porous rock deep underground. Waste water injection is known to cause low magnitude earthquakes, but the relationship between earthquakes and fracking itself remains contested. Supporters of fracking routinely cite the economic benefits, while opponents argue that the effects can also include lasting ground and surface water contamination, and air and noise pollution.
The vote passed in the House of Commons by 298 to 261. But it came about without a debate in parliament, after ministers used a form of secondary legislation to defer a reading of the draft legislation on Tuesday evening, requiring a vote first thing on Wednesday. Under this process of deferred divisions, MPs voted by filling in ballot papers, with the result announced later by the Speaker.
No fracking currently takes place in the UK, but licences have been granted for more than a hundred drilling sites of up to 10 kilometres across. MPs voted in January against a bid to suspend drilling for shale gas, but at the time the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government also promised an ‘outright ban’ on fracking in national parks. The Scottish and Welsh governments introduced moratoriums on fracking earlier this year.
Conservative Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom defended Wednesday’s vote, suggesting that there has already been ‘enormous debate’ on the subject. She added that a shift from coal to gas would represent a ‘huge decarbonisation win’, while creating ‘thousands of jobs’. But Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron accused the government of a ‘parliamentary wheeze’ that meant ‘our national parks and areas of scientific interest are now at risk’. And Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP for Brighton Pavilion, referring to the recent climate agreement in Paris, said:
‘To have any realistic chance of keeping global warming to well under two degrees we need to ban fracking in the UK. That’s why the decision to allow drilling under protected areas as well as everywhere else is so deeply disappointing. Not only does fracking fly in the face of the climate science but mounting evidence suggests it won’t lower bills.’
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Designs Unveiled for Tokyo National Olympic Stadium
On Monday the Japan Sport Council unveiled two anonymous designs for Tokyo’s new National Stadium, to be built in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The original plans for the stadium were scrapped in July by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, after a futuristic design by Zaha Hadid was criticised for spiralling costs. As a result, the new stadium will now not be ready to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Both anonymous projects are titled ‘Stadium in a Forest’, and otherwise labelled only ‘A’ and ‘B’. But they are believed to represent separate joint ventures, bringing together major Japanese construction corporations and, respectively, the architects Kengo Kuma and Toyoo Ito. Making prominent use of wood rather than steel, shorter in height and more slender, these modest proposals have estimated costs of around 153 billion yen, in contrast to the 252 billion yen price of Hadid’s design.
Project A features a series of circular levels supported by exposed timber trusses. Project B is encased in glass, with monumental timber columns and a white steel roof.
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:DRYVRS with Macaulay Culkin
A new comedy web series appeared on YouTube on Thursday, entitled :DRYVRS and created and written by musician, actor, and producer Jack Dishel. The series ‘stars Jack as an on-demand car service passenger and chronicles the strange drivers he encounters’. In this debut episode, Macaulay Culkin reflects on his Christmastime past.
