Madrid:
Spaniards voted in potentially tight general elections on Sunday, which could see Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s ruling Socialists lose power and allow a far-right party to form part of a new government for the first time in 50 years.
Sanchez called the election early after the left took a beating in local elections in May, but his gamble to wrong-foot his opponents could backfire.
Opinion polls show the election is likely to lead to victory for Alberto Nunez Feijoo’s center-right People’s Party, but to form a government it must team up with Santiago Abascal’s far-right Vox. It would be the first time that a far-right party has entered government since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in the 1970s.
Voting closes at 8pm (6pm GMT) (9pm in the Canary Islands) when the voter polls conducted over the past week via phone calls are released. All ballots are expected to be counted at midnight, confirming the party with the most votes.
Both the left and right blocs have the potential to form coalitions, which need at least 176 seats in the 350-seat lower house. A new parliament must be formed by August 17, but negotiations between the parties to form a government could take months.
An analysis of polling data by Spanish newspaper El Pais on July 19, when the poll ended, predicted a 55% chance of a PP/Vox coalition, a 15% chance that Sanchez would remain in power with a patchwork left-wing coalition, and a 23% chance of a hung parliament and a repeat election.
When Sanchez went to vote in Madrid, he was greeted by a small group of people shouting “liar” and a similarly sized group shouting “prime minister”, TVE footage showed. He told reporters he had “good feelings” about the election results.
The Prime Minister’s minority government is currently forming a coalition with the far-left Unidas Podemos running for election under the Sumar platform on Sunday.
Feijoo said he hoped Spain could start a “new era”.
VOX leader Abascal said “the most important thing today is whether Spain changes course” and thanked voters for “disturbing their peace” in casting their votes, while Sumar leader Yolanda Diaz said “rights are at stake” and urged people to vote in what was “probably the most important election” for her generation.
The election took place during the summer holidays and during intense heat in much of the country.
According to the Home Office, turnout at around 2pm (12pm GMT) was about 40.5%, compared to the 37.9% recorded at the same time during the last election in November 2019.
Postal workers arrived at polling stations with boxes of postal votes after the Post reported on Saturday that they set a record 2.47 million as people cast their ballots from the beach or the mountains.
“The status quo scenario and a hung parliament are still a real possibility, probably with a combined chance of 50% in our opinion,” Barclays wrote in a recent note to clients, citing the slim margin in favor of PP and overall uncertainty about the polls and voter turnout.
If a bloc cannot agree on the formation of a government, new elections must be held – something which has happened twice in the last 10 years.
Such uncertainty could affect Madrid’s effectiveness as the current host of the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, as well as the spending of EU COVID recovery funds.
A SWING TO THE RIGHT?
Sanchez’s administration has passed progressive laws on euthanasia, transgender rights, abortion and animal rights — rights that the antifeminist, family-values-oriented Vox has said it will seek to repeal if it becomes part of the next administration.
With the major parties relying on smaller parties for support, the political center has been compromised.
Speaking in Barcelona, 43-year-old engineer Luis Alonso said: “Around the world, the world is moving towards more division between the right and the left… it’s no different here”.
In Madrid, Yolanda Fernandez, 67, referred to the Franco era, saying: “I voted for the Socialists because I lived through a period that I don’t want to see repeated”. She said Vox’s entry into government would represent a “very big setback for social rights”.
Sanchez, in office since 2018, has marked his term as prime minister with crisis management – from the COVID pandemic and its economic fallout to the politically disruptive fallout of Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid.
PP leader Feijoo, who has never lost an election in his native Galicia, has sold himself as a safe pair of hands, which could appeal to some voters, experts say.
“I voted for the right, but I will not say whether I voted for the PP or VOX. I think the country needs a change. Pedro Sanchez is a bad politician,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, a 63-year-old official who votes in Madrid.
An eventual PP government could water down the previous government’s green agenda and take a more conservative stance on social issues.
The PP has pledged to streamline the tax system, cut taxes on lower incomes, abolish a recently introduced wealth tax, boost industry and lower value-added taxes on meat and fish.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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