While the parties belonging to the League Party group are holding firm on their positions, in many countries it is proving that the attitude of the Socialists plays an important role in achieving government stability.
Whenever they behave adventurously,the result is the creation of pluralism and divisive situations. Conversely, when they are interested in stability, they manage to exercise opposition without identifying with the extremes.
Most prominent examples are those of coalition governments in Austria, Portugal and Spain.In Austria there have been instances of pluralism,in Spain the Socialists are hostage to minority parties who blackmail to support the government, while in Portugal they behave with patriotic moderation and contribute to the stability of their country.
Austria: headlines for the honeymoon
In Austria, in the 29 September 2024 elections, Herbert Kickle’s far-right party (FPÖ) captured the lead, taking 29% of the vote. On 3 March 2025 – and after 155 days of deliberations and many failed negotiations – the country obtained a cooperation government. The centre-right (ÖVP), the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS came together – in order to avoid the presence of the Nazi Austrian far-right.
With Christian Stoker (ÖVP) as chancellor,the coalition was, however, unable to prevent the election of a far-rightist, Walter Rosenkrants, as speaker of the lower house of parliament. A political thriller has been unfolding in the country in recent months, as internal tensions, unilateral actions and public disagreements between the partners
“The government is hanging by a thread,” the press says. “This failed coalition is nothing more than a brain-dead political entity,” Kikle said recently. The reason for this is that in government everyone in the government is making announcements without consulting the other partners. A year after the formation of the governing coalition, the incidents are multiplying.
On 14 February last year, Valentine’s Day, the newspaper Der Standard declared the end of the honeymoon (actually, the honeymoon period). For example, Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler (SPÖ) announced, without consultation, the restriction of access to social networks to minors. The NEOS liberals immediately reacted, disagreeing and proposing a change in the curricula, calling for less Latin and more technology and information on artificial intelligence, media and social networks.
The biggest uproar was caused by Chancellor Stoker himself, who, also without consulting anyone, announced his intention to hold a non-binding referendum on the length of mandatory military service.
Despite the broad consensus and agreement by President Alexander van der Belen, coalition partners expressed surprise as they said it was something that could easily be resolved within the government rather than by referendum.
Portugal: Where Socialists back home
Portugal has held three elections in less than two years and early last February, in the second round of the presidential election, the centre-right candidate came in third place, when moderate Socialist Antonio Jose Seguro and far-right leader Andre Ventura were pitted against each other.
Seguro’s victory was sweeping (66%), even surpassing the 1991 victory of Mario Soares, also a Socialist, as everyone backed him, with Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s centre-right party leading the way. The leadership of the Portuguese centre-right openly voted for the Socialist Seguro, while the statements of the General Secretary of the Socialist Party, José Luis Carneiro, were clear: “This victory belongs to all democrats, to constitutional rights. The victory belongs to the Socialist Party, to the Centre and to the Democratic Right. It belongs also to the workers and businessmen.”
In Portugal there is a centre-right minority government, but the Socialists have officially come out in favour of stability. In March 2025, Montenegro had resigned after just one year in power, having lost the confidence of parliament, and in May 2025 Portuguese people went back to the polls. At the end of October 2025, the Socialist Party voted with its 58 deputies in favour of the budget, while the Far Left, the beloved “Leftist Bloc” of Syriza and Tsipras, which had also brought down the socialist government of Antonio Costa, voted against it along with the far right.
Since 2019, no government has been able to complete its term in Portugal, with the result that the country’s standing in the ratings of international agencies has not improved due to political instability. This time, however, they gave the message all together except for the populists. A little brainpower is needed…
Spain: three years with a 2023 budget!
For a decade now, in Spain we’ve had the same pattern: elections (usually early) are won by the Popular Party, but the Socialist Party under Sanchez allies itself sometimes with Podemos, sometimes with the United Left (Sumar) and always with Basque separatists and Catalan separatists. All of these together form cooperation or minority governments – such as the current one.
It is easy to see that Sanchez is forced to constantly submit to blackmail, with the result that the country’s international relations are also disrupted. A typical example is the crisis with Israel, as the Spanish left is blatantly pro-Palestinian, indifferent to the actions of Hamas. This governmental collaboration has left Spain without a budget for three years. The current budget is the one for 2023, which is automatically extended every year.
The consequences are very serious, especially in terms of ratings from international agencies and debt reduction. On October 30, 2025, Sanchez’s Catalan allies (Junts) withdrew their support for the government, to which they offered the votes of seven of their deputies (in a 350-seat parliament).
In the two previous years, Catalans offered support to the government on occasion, each time receiving something in return, mostly fiscal. This is why the government does not have the necessary votes to pass the budget.
On another occasion, Sanchez unilaterally cancelled an ammunition purchase agreement with Israel, bowing to the radical left. Tfriction with his government allies also arose when Sanchez announced that Spain would increase its defense spending to reach 2 percent of GDP. The allies voted against it.
“They are not my team, they are not my king, they are not my anthem!”Who the allies are is well known. In July 2014, the general coordinator of the Basque Bildu party, Arnaldo Otegi, had said in commenting on the victories of the Spanish national team: “I will never be happy when Spain wins.
“It’s not my team, it’s not my king and it’s not my anthem”
Basque players don’t have the option of playing for the Basque team because the Spanish state denies us.” And the Catalans were directly blackmailed by the accused Puigdemont: “If they don’t allow Catalonia to manage 100% of the taxes it collects on its territory, there will be no budget because we won’t vote for it.”
The most recent crisis concerns the EU’s demand (a European Council decision from 2018, to which Spain had agreed) for an electoral reform to prevent parties with less than 2% of the vote from entering the European Parliament. Since then no voice or hearing from Madrid and the Moncloa Palace.
Last January, the European Parliament issued a recommendation recalling Spain’s non-compliance. Except that the Spanish prime minister’s hands are tied. Such a decision would seriously damage his parliamentary partners, especially the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).
The change in the electoral law could be approved with the votes of the Popular Party, but it would deprive one of its allies in the minority government. Last February, the People’s Party (PP) tabled a parliamentary question, with the government responding that the electoral law “as a cornerstone of our democratic system, requires the widest possible consensus in Parliament”!
Hostages of 1.5%
Of course, given that the country’s largest party would be outvoted, the “broad consensus” exists. For, according to the constitution, 175 votes are required in parliament, while the Popular Party has 137, and if the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) agreed to vote, the two parties together would have 258 seats. That is 73% of MPs! A percentage by which not an electoral law, but the constitution itself could be changed!
The truth lies elsewhere
In the last European elections, CEUS, the coalition that includes the Basque nationalists, received only 1.61% of the vote. That means Sanchez’s Basque supporters in the national parliament would be left out of the European Parliament And of course, they are not the only ones who would be affected.
In the last European elections, only the People’s Party (34.2%), the Socialist Party (30.18%) and the far-right Vox (9.62%) received more than 5% of the vote. Sumar, Podemos, Bildu (Basque) and ERC (Catalan) currently have 13 seats in the European Parliament and in the event of a change in the electoral law some of these would be shared between the top three. So Sanchez remains hostage to parties with percentages of 1.5% and 2.5%. All about power…
Tomorrow: France, Germany, Norway
