PP recedes but remains, PSG-PSOE sinks and BNG achieves historic rise

By Anton Freire

Although Ana Pontón of the Galician Nationalist Bloc will not be president of the Xunta on this occasion, The Galician nationalist left advances and strengthens as the first opposition party to the Galician government controlled by the centralist right of the Popular Party.

On the other hand, the Socialist Party of Galicia (PSG) subsidiary of the ruling PSOE in the Spanish State, experiences a resounding fall.

The other factors, both the extreme right of Vox and the more or less peripheral reformist left of the PSOE, they are left out of the Galician parliament, although a local factor from Orense emerges, also markedly right-wing, with only one deputy. But we must take into account that Vox gathered more votes than these.

The block, with the candidacy of Ana Pontón, has achieved the 31,58 % of votes, with what rises 19 a 25 MPs (6 plus), having almost a third of the Galician electoral population as supporters of his nationalist project. These are the best results that BNG has achieved so far, that had arrived at 24,8 % in 1997 to go down successively until a 8,3 % in 2016; after which it would rise (also with Ana Pontón) a 23,8 % in 2020, before making the jump to Sunday's elections 18 February 2024.

Nevertheless, Pontón declared that this result was “insufficient” because “we wanted to open a new time”, but at the same time he stated that “Galicia has already changed and there is no going back”. But this change of will is not inexorable., Well, it will always depend on the class struggle!! And the role that the BNG intends to play and actually plays in it..

The PP of Rueda (President of the Board) and his boss Feijóo, they manage to maintain the absolute majority in parliament and continue to hold autonomous government, although with a loss of two deputies compared to the previous election, when signing up 40 deputies of the 42 that I had before, but above the 38 that mark the line of the absolute majority. His percentage of votes was 47,30 %, with a majority in the four provinces, but in Vigo, the most populated and most working-class city in Galicia won the Block.

There is undoubtedly some wear and tear on the PP, but the PSG-PSOE thing is a real disaster, with its worst results of all the Galician elections. And the latter annulled the possibility of trying to take the majority away from the PP through an eventual agreement to allow it to govern the Bloc or with a coalition government between the two that would give the presidency to Pontón., despite the contradictions between a force that speaks of a “ceibe” or independent “Galiza” and a social democratic party of the centralist monarchical regime, no matter how “progressive” it is in some positions.

Therefore, the rejection of PSG, PSOE tax, representing the central government, shifted the social democratic vote in some cases towards the ruling popular right in Galicia and in others towards the left-wing nationalists, who seem to have been the ones who took advantage of the phenomenon the most, despite the fact that the BNG campaign was almost exclusively against the PP and not against the PSG-PSOE, while the PP campaign was directed against Besteiro (Galician candidate) and Sanchez (spanish president).  

Of course, having to depend on a coalition with the PSG-PSOE to make it possible for Ana Pontón and the BNG to achieve the presidency of the Xunta, would not have been a desirable alternative as some might think, because that would mean co-governing with a branch of Spanish centralism, with a party that would lower the BNG's program and that would splash it with everything they did from the Moncloa, in addition to being tied to one of the main instruments (together with the PP) of the Spanish bourgeoisie, when not infrequently what the PP tries to do abruptly and rudely ends up being done by the PSOE with lubricants, stories and perfumes.

So it would be an illusion to try to exercise the presidency with our own “Galician” government., having the PSOE as a partner, which is subject to European capitalism, since a truly own government could only be the result of the BNG's own votes and a correlation of forces gained with social struggles, fought alongside the Galician people, without conditions or restrictions of social democracy (The name “socialist” and “worker” that they still wear as an ornament is too big for them.).

The BNG is facing the possibility of continuing to grow as a Galician radical force, opposition to the two large centralist parties that have been dividing the government within the capitalist regime of the Spanish monarchy.

And it can do so if it remains at the head of the national social and political struggle of Galicia., of the mobilization of the working class and the less favored sectors, of the people who work at sea, In the health, The education, the field or in other areas, and next to it, of course the youth and the elderly population, for the defense, conservation and expansion of your rights and benefits, for the environmental preservation of its land and its coasts, for your identity, their language and their culture…

This would not be compatible with a co-government formula with Spanish capitalist centralism, that blurred the program and the liberation project, as was already proven in some way when the BNG co-governed with Touriño's PSG, from the vice presidency of Quintana, which led to a crisis and resignation, causing prolonged damage to Galician nationalism.

From a programmatic point of view, The proposals presented by the different contenders in the Galician elections were quite weak, vague and full of common places, propaganda slogans predominating over content focused on finding true solutions to problems. In that context, the BNG presented more elaborate approaches, emphasizing the offer to govern Galicia without servility or submission to centralism and pointing to the strengthening of national aspects, Galicia's resources for Galicia, the linguistic and cultural demands of the Galician people (something that would not have been able to be fulfilled in the event of an eventual government alliance with the PSG solely for the purpose of displacing the PP.). He also emphasized the improvement of social services, care for the elderly and dependent population, environmental issues…

But definitions that pointed in the direction of changing the production system were lacking., exploitation and class division of capitalism in Galicia, that cannot be separated from the same struggle for all nationalities, for the entire Spanish State and beyond. Especially,  the BNG being the political force behind the Galician Intersyndical Central (CIG). Greater development and precision of substantial proposals for change in the situation of the Galician working class in all areas is missing.. And the route to national liberation is not completely clear beyond the offer to put the resources “in favor of two Galician interests.” (of what social class?) by not touching the question of capitalist property (at least in the program broadcast to the public), since it is known that the resources of Galicia, not only does Spanish centralism suck them, but a good part of them are in the hands of a minority owners (Galician and non-Galician).

So, this electoral advance, although it has not been “enough” to go on to govern, in the case of BNG, is giving a big push as opposition to the PP that governs in Galicia and also to the PSG that is part of the PSOE that governs in Spain, which should translate into greater forcefulness to assume leadership of the organization and mobilization of the Galician people in their struggles. A) Yes, in addition to all the conquests that those fights may bring, To a large extent, that would be what would nourish their future new electoral advances., that would be supported by that driving force.

But that cannot be successful only within the limits of Galicia, but rather it needs an articulation with the struggles of the working people throughout the Spanish State and with the struggles of the rest of the oppressed nationalities that make it up., since the destiny of the Galician people is inextricably linked to the destiny of the entire working class, to the fate of Spanish capitalism and its monarchy.