Spain go to polls as conservatives eye ousting Sanchez

SPANIARDS are voting on Sunday (Jul 23) for their first election in the summer heat, raising question about turnout, with the conservative opposition as clear frontrunners but likely needing the far right to govern.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the opposition leader, is banking on voters having tired of five years of contentious gender policies and Madrid’s ties with regional separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country to help move him into the government’s Moncloa palace. 

Feijoo, who has never held national elected posts but served as president of the northern region of Galicia for 13 years, has avoided focusing too much of his campaign on the economy, which has done relatively well under Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez since the pandemic.

At 2 pm Madrid time (8 pm Singapore time), turnout had reached almost 40.5 per cent, higher than the 37.9 per cent in the previous election in 2019, as Spaniards braved the summer heat to cast ballots. Voters could be seen using their paper ballots as fans at some polling stations. Voting is due to end at 8 pm CET, with exit polls published from 9 pm. Results are expected around midnight.

Sanchez, who is betting on last-minute mobilisation by leftist voters to keep his job, called a surprise snap election in May, the day after Feijoo’s People’s Party (PP) and far-right nativist group Vox clinched a sweeping victory for the right in city and regional elections. 

Sanchez was seeking to dent his rival’s momentum, but that has apparently failed. His attempts to focus on economic growth, among the strongest in Europe, and on slowing inflation – the lowest in the euro zone – did not gain the necessary traction. 

A win for Feijoo would mark redemption for the PP, which was ousted from power when Sanchez in 2018 led Spain’s first ever successful no-confidence vote against then premier Mariano Rajoy. 

A potential coalition government coalition between the PP and Vox would mark a major shift, as it would be the first time that a far-right party entered government. 

Most polls published before a Jul 18 blackout showed the PP winning a comfortable first place, with Vox in third place and thereby allowing the pair to form a coalition government. They have already done so in scores of city halls and several regional administrations. A few polls showed the right-wing bloc falling short of the necessary 176 parliamentary majority, but none had the Socialists and their far-left Sumar partners having enough support to govern.

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The election will be the first national ballot held during the summer in Spain since 1977, when the first vote was held after the end of a 36-year dictatorship. The initial turnout numbers indicated that Spaniards were not deterred, and a further update on turnout will be issued at 6 pm.

At least one region specifically bans local votes during the summer to avoid the heat, which can be well over 40 degrees Celsius in regions such as Andalusia and Extremadura. The problem is compounded by the fact that ballots are held in schools, and many do not have adequate air conditioning systems. 

Southern Europe has been hit by a fierce heat wave in recent days. Spain has not suffered as badly as Italy and Greece, but the eastern region of Catalonia registered an all-time high of 45.1 deg C on Jul 18. BLOOMBERG