After the postponement of the elections in the Basque Country and Galicia, which were to be held on April 5th, due to the pandemic and the state of alarm decree, the leaders of the two autonomous communities, Basque lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu and Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo, have both decided to call elections on 12th July, a couple of months before the end of their respective four-year terms on 25th September. Urkullu and Feijóo have the same strategy: go to the polls as quickly as possible before the economic and social crisis already breaking over us sweeps away expectations and devours governments. Urkullu's continuity in the job is beyond all question and, in fact, the only doubt is whether he will rule alone, repeat his Basque Nationalist alliance with the Socialists - the most likely option - or, thirdly, turn towards an agreement with Basque pro-independence party Bildu - unlikely.
Much more problematic is Feijóo's hold on the Pazo de Raxoi, the Galician government palace his People's Party (PP) executive has occupied since 2009. His results have always balanced on the edge of an absolute majority and it remains to be seen what will happen to Vox and Ciudadanos since the PP chief needs to attract all the vote from the centre and right if he does not want to see his presidency endangered.
Despite the pressure being exerted in Catalonia, an election will not be called immediately. Only the Supreme Court and the disqualification from office of Catalan president Quim Torra could alter this schedule and precipitate an election in the last quarter of 2020. For this to happen, as some - perhaps wishfully - believe it will, it would mean the disqualification of Torra before the August break. The Supreme Court seems to transmit differing messages, so one week it assures that this matter will proceed quickly and the next that it is in no hurry. Since only Manuel Marchena, the president of the Court, knows what's really going on - and it isn't even certain that he always works with the same schedule - we will have to wait.
It is for this reason that Torra won't hear a word about elections, after his own rushed move to agree to an end to the legislature, which he is now trying to stitch back together as best he can, with the pandemic and economic crisis as a backdrop. The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia will either be removed from office by the Supreme Court or he will continue till the end of the legislature, in December 2021. And there is no plan B in his party Together for Catalonia (JxCat) because they consider plan A to be the best. It's that simple.