Municipal and regional elections which were celebrated on the 24th of May established a new electoral scene situated within the political, social and business spotlight in the next general elections. The new context requires all stakeholders, including companies to reconsider their decisions in relation to dialogue and relationships with leaders and public administration.
ATREVIA met this morning with three experts in public opinion research, science and public affairs to analyze the results from the 24th of May, anticipating scenarios for the near future and providing companies with the key aspects to design strategies for institutional relations in the next legislature.
For the Spanish business community it is essential to determine the trends that show results and think how it can configure the power map in Spain in the upcoming months and how it will affect this political and economic activity in Spain.
“The results from these latest elections are not extrapolated to the general elections: they are different elections with different logistics”, stated Araceli Mateos, political science lecturer from the University of Salamanca. The key question that arose from these elections according to Mateos is if parties should come together in the general elections or maintain their own brands.
For his part, Manuel Mostaza, Operational Director of Sigma Dos and expert in public opinion research trends, highlighted that we are in a situation of tectonic movements that have been reflected in surveys and later elections; a situation of rapid change by which for example “a third of voters decide their vote at the last minute”.
Mostaza also anticipated ahead of the general elections that today the wave of Ciudadanos should affect in a limited way the People’s Party while Podemos could grow at the expense of the PSOE and the left in general.
Finally, the Operational Director of Sigma Dos drew two electoral scenarios for the short and medium term: one in which the parties coexist in a 2+2 formation and other which is less likely according to predictions, is that we are open for four more matches.
Yolanda Román, director of the division of public affairs at ATREVIA, centered on the risks and opportunities for companies, the need to understand new maps for actors and rethink the interaction dynamics with policy makers: “It is not only about identifying the new actors to establish relationships and dialogue. What is more important will be finding the best way to interact with them. It is not only the who but also the how they must consider those responsible for institutional relations in firms”.
The new power map that we are already looking at is going to redefine not only the political agenda but also the times and dynamics of interaction and collaboration between the public and private areas. “The time of revising the public affairs manuals and strategies of companies has arrived and revising the communications skills and negations with managers is inevitable”, concluded Yolanda Román.
