The left and the right parties in modern Spain often approach many problems that the country faces very differently. In these conditions, the question of whether the left-wing coalition government led by Pedro Sánchez will remain in power until the end of 2023, when the next parliamentary elections are to take place, is of utmost importance. And if it does, will the Socialists win again, or will the initiative pass to the right forces? Government performance is assessed rather contradictory by the citizens of Spain and there are certain reasons for this. The country has embarked on the thorny path of overcoming the consequences of the pandemic. Many sectors of Spanish economy are recovering, the situation in the labour market has improved. But in general, the pace of economic recovery has not yet reached expected indicators and results. Inflation has risen because of rising electricity and gasoline prices, and the purchasing power of the population has declined. At the moment, the government’s prospects are largely determined by the relationship between the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and Unidas Podemos coalition. This relationship is very complex and contradictory, and as a result disagreements and conflicts arise quite often. An equally difficult question is whether the support of the separatist and nationalist parties of Catalonia and the Basque Country, without which the current government will lose its absolute majority in the lower house of parliament and cannot count on effective governance, will continue. The government’s choices are narrowed by the position of the right-wing parties that stand in stiff and uncompromising opposition and accuse it of complete irrelevancy. Tension reigns in public life with political situation remaining volatile and largely unpredictable.

Spain became one of the most affected countries both in terms of the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19, and in terms of the damage caused to the economy, which had not fully recovered from the 2008 crisis. The pandemic crisis is now being tackled by a coalition government comprised of the center-left Spanish Socialist Labor Party (PSOE) and the left-wing Unidas Podemos, with external support from small regional forces. It is opposed by the rightwing bloc of parties, which includes recently shifting to the right Partido Popular (PP), the right-wing Vox and the center-right Ciudadanos, rapidly losing political weight. The key question today is whether the government, which is forced to turn to other parties for help, will be able to fulfill its responsibilities until the elections scheduled for the end of 2023. Last November marked two years since the last elections. The purpose of this article thereto is to determine the main features of the modern political process in Spain and take stock of the government’s actions, analyze expectations of society and predict further development of internal politics of Spain during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic reality. The author used a wide range of methods: the analysis and synthesis of information, the statistical method, as well as the system analysis; the author also relies on research by domestic and foreign Hispanists, opinion polls, government and party documents. The author concludes that the political process in Spain today is subject to negative influence of a strong confrontation between the coalition government and the opposition, and the Spanish society is split on a number of issues.

In this article, the author identifies new trends in political participation in the elections of deputies to the Parliament of Catalonia (February 2021). Political participation in Catalonia is of interest from the perspective of changes in the identity and party orientations of voters, transformations of the Spanish and Catalan party systems. The analysis of territorial differences in political participation is promising in terms of clarifying their factors and dynamics. System analysis, synchronous comparative analysis, secondary analysis of the results of questionnaires are applied hereinunder. Political participation in the Catalan community is autonomous, it corresponds to the civic type of political culture, due to informatization of society and the pandemic, forms of online involvement in political activity prevail. The community is segmented along linguistic, ethnic and ideological lines, which increases the volatility and pluralization of the party system. New trends in political participation in the elections in Catalonia (2021) have manifested themselves in a significant decrease in voter turnout, preference for online forms of voting and political discussion, which is caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It has been proven that the public opinion of Catalan voters maintains a low level of trust in state institutions, despite improvements in economic situation. The paradox is explained by the long-term orientations and attitudes of political culture. The degree of awareness of electoral orientations (according to the self-esteem of the respondents) is high, the sources of formation of their orientations are, first of all, television and the Internet. The electorate is divided into supporters of state unity and secession, republic and monarchy. Increased support for secessionism is evident among the voters with a high level of income and education, among the inhabitants of the foothill and mountain areas. The Catalan elections in 2021 confirmed a moderate rise in secessionist sentiment. The left trend of changes in political participation in Catalonia is opposite to that of Spain as a whole, the results of regional elections in Madrid and the Basque Country.

2 677 173 people voted for the “Vox” party in the April 2019 general election. Just seven months later, in November, that number increased to 3 640 063 votes, making “Vox” the third largest party in Spain in terms of both seats in the lower house of parliament (52 out of 350) and total votes (15.21%). “Vox” is a young Spanish right-wing party that was destined to remain small and insignificant, but ended up becoming one of the most influential actors in the country’s political space. Where other radical and far-right parties have failed, “Vox” has succeeded, and the party can now boast that it has put an end to Spain’s once exclusive status of a country free of right-wing politicians. The purpose of this article is to determine the electorate of this party, the success of which has become a real shock in the political arena of Spain. The author makes an analysis of socio-demographic profile of the “Vox” electorate. It is considered how class, education, age, gender and ideological views are associated with the support of “Vox.” “Vox” supporters differ significantly from supporters of both traditional and new Spanish parties. According to the analysis, “Vox” supporters are predominantly young males. The party has the smallest proportion of voters with higher education. “Vox” electorate is largely concentrated around those who strongly identify with Spain and the idea of “Hispanidad” and, above all, those who consider the country “under attack” from internal separatist forces (in Catalonia and the Basque country) and external cosmopolitanism, mainly in the form of immigration.

The author, using the identity approach and discourse analysis explores a serious political conflict in today’s Spain about historical memory, threatening solidarity and civilian identity of the Spaniards and also political stability in the society, divided on a variety of characteristics – economic, social, territorial, cultural, value, ethnic, linguistic, etc., which have acquired or are acquiring a political dimension. The alternative politics of memory, which are declared and carried out by different competing actors of political process at the country level, first of all being government and opposition parties, are analyzed in the article. The expression of authorities’ discourse of the present left coalition government on the issues of Spanish past in the country’s mediasphere is considered to understand the extent and depth of public and political debate on key problems of Spanish history and memory. The author uses a historical metaphor of conflict of the “two Spains” to assess “memory wars” in Spanish society, multicultural and divided on various grounds, identifying short-term (with a view of forthcoming general parliamentary elections, which will take place in 2022) and long-term strategic risks for inclusive nation-building and sustainable development of the country. A conclusion is made that a division based on party ideological principles is axial (dominant) in “memory wars”, despite the remaining sharpness of the vertical conflict between center and some particularist regions (primarily Catalonia); within the frame of this conflict there are attempts to reassess, anonymize, and get a hold of or mythologize various historic events and personas. Nowadays the dispute between “rightists” and “leftists” in assessment of Second Spanish Republic, number of victims on both sides during the civil war, Francoist regime, success of democratic transition in post-Francoist period and other “difficult” questions across Spanish past becomes more emotionally charged, deep and aggressive.

We examine the impact of the pandemic on religiosity and attitudes towards the Catholic Church in Spain. The author analyzes Spanish religious life and defines its specificity in the context of global transformations of the pandemic era, based on the researches of leading sociological centers. It would seem that in the face of a mortal threat, the population will more often turn to God and that religion will strengthen its positions. But the reality is more complicated. At various stages of the pandemic the reaction was different. Prevailing religions also gave their own models of behavior and understanding of the pandemic. Catholicism demonstrated very rational and disciplined approach to the sanitary measures and vaccinations, which corresponds to its attitude towards earthly life and bodily health. In pandemic era the general pattern was linked with the strengthening of faith among strong believers. The nonbelievers, agnostics and atheists became even more entrenched in their unbelief. This also applies to Spain, where the overall religiosity of the public correlates with its political orientations. The polarization of society is going fast, with religion rapidly losing its influence. The proportion of practicing Catholics continues to decline, and the pandemic accelerated this process. Although the Catholic Church in Spain provided significant material and spiritual assistance to the suffering society, it failed to strengthen its position due to the loss of reputation, caused by suppression of problems related to pedophilia and homosexuality of the priesthood. The author comes to a conclusion that the spiritual transformation of modern Spanish society mean that the Christian world is probably approaching radical changes in the forms of its spiritual life and faith.

Since integration of the Spanish economy into the EU (since January 1, 1986), 35 years have already passed. During this period of time political and economic European map has undergone significant changes. Economic sectors were deeply transformed by globalization and regionalization. For Spain, the process of joining European structures mainly meant rebuilding of national economic system in accordance with the necessary criteria and norms, which set the Spanish economy on the path of diversification and modernization. In recent years, Brussels has been focusing on the growing importance of external economic and export component for the EU member–states. It means redistributing production and technological chains within the Eurozone and, furthermore, diversification of the EU trade and industrial external relations, including the demand and needs of third parties, i.e. on the markets outside the European Union. In this regard, for Spain it is of particular importance to build up its export potential, develop export clusters and extend internationalization of business, to reduce the cost of production, and intensify country’s participation in global price chains. At the same time, it is necessary to admit, that the Spanish economy and its external sector are under the pressure of both internal and external factors today. These are: protracted crisis phenomena in the European Union (Brexit, financial and economic difficulties in the Eurozone, price volatility in the energy market, etc.), the worsening conditions for interaction with the United States, trade wars, slowing global economic growth. Finally, the impact of the COVID-19 has been a major social and economic challenge for Spain.

The European labour market, being an integral part of the global one, is currently under the influence of cyclical macroeconomic trends when periods of positive growth are replaced by crises and economic recessions. The instability of the European economy during the protracted crisis, which started in 2008, led to the labour market slack, an increase in unemployment and the spread of nonstandard forms of employment. The post crisis period defined as the “new norm” and used to describe the socio-economic impact of the global recession, turned out to be short to stabilize working sectors: in early 2020 the world was struck down by the COVID-19 pandemic which caused unprecedented and widespread job loss. Countries of Southern Europe, including Spain, were among the most deeply affected. By using the Iberian case, the author tries to show the main patterns of employment situation during the pandemic and analyze the steps taken by the Spanish government to prevent further employment decline. To reduce unemployment and preserve jobs, Spain, following its neighbors’ model, introduced a shortterm underemployment regime (ERTE) which implies a temporary suspension of labour contracts. These measures had certain results; however, a cross-country analysis reveals their lower efficiency in comparison with the achievements in the states of the center and north of Europe. Spanish employment sector is predicted to recover slowly. The future will show how successful these initiatives of the Spanish government will be. However, on this path, a greater political consensus should be achieved.