A time for doing deals

Polarization around the two major political forces on the national scene, the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialist Party (PSOE), has not in every case determined the political coloring of the local and regional governments now being formed in the wake of the May 22 elections. Although inter-party pacts are inevitable, considerations such as the proximity of the next general elections and, in the Basque Country, the adaptation of the other parties to the upsurge of the radical separatist coalition Bildu renders the combinations more complicated. Inter-party pacts, and the groups with whom they are made, will send one sort of message or another to the voters, who in 10 months will again be casting a ballot.

The leadership of United Left (IU) in Extremadura has opted for a vote among members to resolve the dilemma facing the party. This vote is more a sign of political immaturity than a praiseworthy exercise of internal democracy. It is an established principle that it is up to the most-voted party to make the first attempt to form a government. Thus the PP must negotiate with IU to obtain its favorable vote, or its abstention. If IU abstains, on the grounds of its differences with Fernández Vara's Socialists, it will be the PP that forms a regional government. And such an outcome would amount to an open contradiction with the two left-wing parties' declared aim of preventing the right from governing.

In Asturias the problem is of another nature. The split-off group in the Popular Party headed by Álvarez-Cascos is the most-voted slate, but needs an agreement with its former party in order to be invested. In this case, it is what might be called a family quarrel, in which the only obstacles to reaching an agreement have to do with the compatibility or otherwise between political leaders who on this occasion have taken different roads toward the satisfaction of their personal ambitions.

It is in the Basque Country, however, where the matter of pacts involves decisions that go beyond mere agreements to form majorities. The PSOE, the PP and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) have in their hands the possibility of reaching an understanding to keep, respectively, the mayoralty of San Sebastián and the provinces of Álava and Guipúzcoa. If they fail to do this, the Bildu coalition will obtain an important quota of official power. Reticence concerning Bildu is great, owing to the fact that the terrorist group ETA has not entirely disappeared, though it is said to be moribund.

Certain errors ought to be avoided in the area of inter-party pacts. Incompatible, contradictory combinations in local and regional governments would tend to aggravate the discredit of politics in general. Meanwhile, due procedures ought to be respected, whether or not the result is known beforehand. If a given party is the most voted, it must have the right to attempt to form a government, even if it fails. And only at this moment will it be advisable to put together alternative combinations.