PCEML: On the General Elections

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist)

Communiqué

On the General Elections

In yesterday’s general elections, the strong turn to the right in the institutions that began on May 22 has been consolidated. The PP [Popular Party] achieved a comfortable absolute majority that, together with its control of City Councils and Autonomous Regions, will allow it to govern with an iron hand during the hard times to come.

The PSOE [Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party] with 110 seats has achieved the worse result in its recent history: a well-deserved punishment, inasmuch as its anti-popular and reactionary policy has been the key that has opened the door to the right, just as in his day Felipe Gonzalez and his government team did. On both occasions, right-wing social democracy has imposed a neoliberal and reactionary policy, leading to the harshest attacks against the labor, social and political rights of the workers majority; the latest attack: the reform of the monarchic Constitution, agreed on with the PP.

The United Left, in spite of the euphoria of its leaders, has not added anything close to the votes lost by the PSOE (an important part of these more than four million votes has gone to the UPyD [Union, Progress and Democracy], a dangerous reactionary force, which preaches a populist discourse) and is almost a million lower than its best result.

The abstention, which has grown more than 30% in the last fifteen years until it has now surpassed 9.5 million, has become the second highest electoral choice. Due to the lack of a well-known (and recognizable) reference, the left voters have abstained massively, also on this occasion.

The only exception was Amaiur, the coalition between Bildu and Aralar, which has been reinforced as the first electoral force in the Basque Country, achieving 7 deputies, which allows them to form a parliamentary group. And thus, the Abertzale forces have always maintained their political coherence. The success of Amaiur is the result of not yielding to the continuous pressure and threats of the regime; thus one cannot rule out a scenario like one in which the forces of the Spanish chauvinism of the Jose Antonio type want to deepen their policy of systematic negation of the political rights of such an important part of Basque citizens. We must be alert.

This is nothing new. The institutional map, as we pointed out in our analysis of the elections for the municipalities and autonomous regions, does not allow for soothing stories. The electorate has clearly moved to the right, while the left mainly continues to be divided and obstinate in continuing to respect the rules of game established during the transition.

This sweeping victory of a reactionary force replete with elements nostalgic for the Franco era and corrupt politicians may seem strange, at times like the present, on which the oligarchy is fighting to increase its attack against the popular classes. But the PP has not won due to its own merits. The new treason perpetrated by a “social-democratic” government has led many citizens to seek revenge with a massive punishment vote by looking towards the only force with the possibility of winning a majority. The recourse to the useful vote that the institutional left espouses to win the support of its voters has ended up turning against it.

Of course this is not encouraging news. The masses continue to be disoriented, their rejection of politics and politicians prevails, a visceral attitude that does not augur anything good.

We are now experiencing the consequences of the treason of the docile left, its systematic rejection of the social movements, its imposition of forgetting history and apoliticism, as instruments to guarantee the acceptance of a regime with phony democratic glitter, in which its representatives in the main institutions have acted in their immense majority of allies of consensus, carrying out a pragmatic and short-sighted policy, on the back of the needs and priorities of the people. The consequences of an anti-democratic electoral law, custom made - to guarantee control of the institutions by the most docile forces that accept the political framework of the monarchy.

The oligarchy seems to be afraid to exhaust the popular expectations too quickly, that the depth of the crisis and the brutality of the measures that they are going to apply will end up completely unmasking the regime and open up a period of social conflict that will drift into a more general confrontation; fear that in the class struggle that is sharpening, the popular camp will end up uniting its forces to respond politically in a fight that will finally overcome big capital.

But, in spite of the “conciliator” tone of Rajoy [leader of the PP and Prime Minister elect – translator’s note] in his first public address, nobody should expect a lull in the attacks. The speed will be determined by what fits the markets and its lackeys. But reality is stubborn and in the next months we will see how Rajoy and his team will deepen the policy of privatization and dismantling the social and political rights begun by Zapatero.

No one should have any doubt that, if they need to, the social liberal leaders will offer to reinforce their State policy. There are no essential contradictions in the reactionary camp: just as they united their forces to impose the reform of the Constitution, they will impose the orders they receive from those who really set the political agenda: the imperialist bourgeoisie.

After learning the result, Cayo Lara [leader of the United Left – translator’s note] declared that its parliamentary group will be spokespersons in Parliament for the fights in the street. We hope and trust that it will be so. The United Left cannot try to dominate the left, it cannot continue refusing to seek unity with other forces in a common program, nor can it persist in claiming that the main problem that the left has faced in these elections is an electoral law that punishes them compared to other forces with a smaller vote.

It is true that the perverse existing electoral law harms them in an inadmissible way, but the deep causes of the indifference of the popular classes with the left must be seen beyond that, in the fact that it lacks its own approach, independent and confronting the monarchic regime, which has conditioned (and it continues doing so) its policy in the institutions.

The left must draw a single and evident conclusion: it is more necessary than ever to advance towards unity. Not any kind of unity, but one that is based on a clear and forceful position of rejection of the regime, by an genuinely democratic framework and, thus, a republican one. To continue to fight dispersed, or even worse, serving as allies of liberal social leaders who have proven time and again that, in their commitment to the oligarchy, they are prepared to sacrifice their own political expectations, as Zapatero showed in his public statement on the electoral result, would be suicidal.

To start on the road to consistent unity of the left, the Republicans have been born, a federation that our Party fully supports and that, despite all the obstacles and pitfalls, has presented candidates in eight electoral districts and developed organizational nuclei in many provinces.

Since its first Assembly, held last October 1, the Republicans have insisted that their objective went beyond elections and made clear that their expectations of it were very limited. The result, however, has been hopeful; the electoral battle has allowed it to begin to launch an organization that is prepared to call its next assembly with the participation of the newly arisen nuclei.

Very harsh months are coming. The European Union of capital and war is taking steps to put an end to any remaining sovereignty of the member States. They demand total submission of all the States to the dictates of the central oligarchy: in Italy they have imposed a government of “technocrats” committed to big capital; in Greece a “government of national unity” in which, together with the social liberals and the rightists of New Democracy, the extreme right is taking part. In Spain, where the economic crisis is very far from touching bottom, the victory of the right, the dispersion of the left and disenchantment of the social majority threatens to generate an explosive situation. We are entering a period in which days can seem like years, with constant changes. The political image arisen from the elections of November 10 will not last long.

November 21, 2011

Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PCE (ML)