About Spanish General Election and Israel  

Spain has held its second general election in six months, and the ruling conservative Partido Popular (People Party) has won 137 seats: 14 more than in December, but still short of the absolute majority in the 350-seat Parliament that it enjoyed after the 2011 election. The centrist party Ciudadanos (Citizens) won 32 seats, 8 less than in December. That means a 169 seats solid pro Israel support in Parliament (higher, if taken into account other small right wing regional parties); 6 more seats than in December.

As per the Socialist Party (PSOE), the results were the worst ever in our democratic history and, yet, a big relief vs the disaster the pre voting polls suggested: 85 seats (5 less than in the past elections). But those unflattering results were nothing compared to the severe setback suffered by the leftist-chavist-communist alliance formed by the pro-Iran Podemos (We Can), Izquierda Unida (United Left) and other left-wing minor parties. The coalition Unidos Podemos (United We Can, which was expected to overtake the Socialist Party) only got 71 seats (losing more than a million votes and retaining the same combined seats as last December), much to the disappointment of their leaders.
The People Party failed after last December election to form a coalition government including Citizens and the Socialist Party. This results are seen as a vindication of PM Rajoy’s leadership (broadly questioned over the last months), but at this point it is unclear if they will succeed this time although the general perception is that the voters sent a strong message for a PP lead coalition government and a solid parliamentary majority in excess of the minimum 176 required seats.
For the Jews and the supporters of Israel in Spain the results are a big relief. There was a general expectation of Unidos Podemos to overtake the Socialists, finish closer to a weaker Popular Party and be in a position to form a left wing government coalition. We have been considering this for months an existential threat for us.
Through the mobilisation of many like-minded groups of the civil society equally concerned with a potential far left, anti western, anti capitalist and anti Semitic government, the true profile of this group has been unmasked and voters mobilised. On Sunday, the coalition Unidos Podemos lost 200,000 votes in the major city councils they control, such as Madrid, Cádiz or Zaragoza. In Madrid it lost 107,000 votes. Podemos, however, still got 21% of the vote (only 1.5% less than the Socialists) with over 5 million votes. The Chavist coalition is still the largest political force in the Catalonia and Basque Country regions and it retains control of the main cities in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza…
Podemos, that has been financed by Iran and Venezuela, has used its presence in local governments over the last nine months to promote an aggressive Institutional BDS campaign that declared 50 city councils so far in the whole country «free of Israeli apartheid». Those regulations excluded Israeli interests, and also Spanish citizens friendly to Israel, from civic, social, political and economic life, creating a modern Judenfrei oil spill. These declarations continue weekly as we speak. ACOM has responded politically, in traditional and social media, and using Lawfare: so far we have won six of the fifty demands we have presented (losing none, the rest try to be decided) and, lacking government support to do so, we will continue fighting against the discrimination of Jews and other pro-Israel citizens in Spain