The electoral advance in the middle of the EU Presidency will leave Sánchez with less time to campaign

Although there are precedents for elections and even a change of government during a European Presidency, this would be hampered

The electoral advance announced by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, will coincide with the start of the current Presidency of the Council of the EU, which Spain will assume on July 1, which will leave the PSOE leader with less time to campaign , since you will have some unavoidable commitments to fulfill.

The first mandatory appointment on the agenda of the Spanish semester at the helm of the EU will be Sánchez's appearance before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. A priori, his intervention before the plenary session to present the government's priorities should take place on July 13, after participating in the NATO summit scheduled for July 11 and 12 in Vilnius.

Likewise, in the first days of July the college of commissioners, with its president, Ursula Von der Leyen, at the head, plans to travel to Madrid, as is usual every time there is a replacement at the helm of the Council of the EU.

On the other hand, Sánchez will still have time before the general elections to participate in one of the star events of the semester: the summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the first since 2015.

Both Sánchez and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, have been expressing the importance of the summit and Spain's desire to allow closer relations between the two blocs, initiating a new stage.

Another of the issues that the Government has indicated as a priority is the negotiation of the Migration and Asylum Pact, whose agreement is resisted mainly due to the differences between North and South and that Spain wanted to unblock in order to close it before the European elections of 6 June 2024. Likewise, the negotiation of the new EU tax rules is also planned.

The Government has been working for months on the preparations for the Spanish semester, which provides for the holding of various sectoral councils in Spain as well as a summit of leaders in Granada on October 5 and 6, to which a summit of the new Community will also be added European policy.

With these a priori unavoidable international commitments, Sánchez would already have committed at least five days of the two-week electoral campaign, which will start on July 7, although in some cases he will surely be able to speed up the times and participate in a rally that same day .

On the other hand, in addition to the appearance of Sánchez in Strasbourg, foreseeably on July 13 after his attendance at the NATO summit scheduled for July 11 and 12 in Vilnius, all the ministers must appear before the European Parliament, at its headquarters in Brussels, during the week of July 17 to 21 to explain the responsibilities of their respective portfolios.

PRECEDENTS IN OTHER PRESIDENCIES

The holding of elections during the mandate at the head of the EU was already contemplated and it was nothing new, since other countries have also held elections during their semester, as happened in France in 2022, but these had to take place at the beginning of December, that is say in the final stretch of the Presidency.

There are also precedents regarding the change of government in the middle of a presidency, as could happen in Spain if the PP prevails over the PSOE in the new appointment with the polls. On January 1, 2009, the Czech Republic assumed the Presidency, with Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democratic Party, ODS, center-right) at the head of the Government, but after losing a vote of no confidence, he had to hand over the baton on May 8 to the independent Jan Fischer.

Belgium, for its part, exercised its entire presidency in the second half of 2010 with a government in office due to the impossibility of forming an executive after the elections on June 10 of that year. The country would finally be without a government for 541 days, but this did not prevent the country from exercising a presidency described as successful.

The different European sources consulted by Europa Press agree that the electoral advance and the possible replacement in the Palacio de la Moncloa will undoubtedly complicate the management of the Presidency despite the fact that it has been working on the preparations for it for months.

However, diplomatic sources frame the fact that elections can be called in the middle of the European semester as part of "democratic normality" and emphasize that the teams in charge of preparing them, made up of civil servants and diplomats both in Madrid and in Brussels, have been working for time and will continue to do so in accordance with the established priorities, they will use themselves as a "guide".

In circumstances like these, the sources consulted by Europa Press underline, "the Administration serves as a stabilizing mechanism" and allows continuity to be guaranteed.

It should be remembered that in the case of Sweden, the country that currently holds the current presidency, it was the government of the social democrat Magdalena Andersson who carried out a good part of this preparatory work, but after losing the September 2022 elections, it has been the executive of the conservative Ulf Kristersson who has exercised it.