Spain’s Prime Minister and Socialist Workers Party candidate Pedro Sánchez cheers on his supporters during the closing meeting of his campaign in Madrid, Spain, Friday, July 21, 2023. Voters in Spain go to the polls on Sunday in an election that could make the country the latest European Union member to lean right-wing populist government, after five years under a populist government.
Emilio Morenatti/AP
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Emilio Morenatti/AP
Spain’s Prime Minister and Socialist Workers Party candidate Pedro Sánchez cheers on his supporters during the closing meeting of his campaign in Madrid, Spain, Friday, July 21, 2023. Voters in Spain go to the polls on Sunday in an election that could make the country the latest European Union member to lean right-wing populist government, after five years under a populist government.
Emilio Morenatti/AP
MADRID — Spanish voters go to the polls in a general election on Sunday that could make Spain the latest right-leaning European Union member.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called early elections after his Spanish Socialist Workers Party and its far-left counterpart, Unidas Podemos, lost local and regional elections in May. Sánchez has been at the top since 2018.
Most opinion polls for Sunday’s vote have placed the right-wing People’s Party, which won the vote in May, ahead of the Socialists but may need the support of the far-right Vox party if they want to form a government.
Such an alliance would return a far-right force to Spain’s government for the first time since the country’s transition to democracy in the late 1970s after nearly 40 years of dictatorship Francisco Franco.
Opposing them were the Socialist Party and a new movement called Sumar that brought together 15 small leftist parties for the first time.
With no party expected to win an absolute majority, the choice is essentially between another left-wing coalition and a right-wing and far-right partnership.
Sánchez’s government has steered Spain through the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with an inflation-driven economic downturn made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But his reliance on fringe parties in his minority coalition is emerging, including separatist forces from Catalonia and the Basque Country, and his passage of a flurry of liberal-minded legislation could cost him his job.
Right-wing parties dislike everything about Sánchez, claiming that he betrayed and ruined Spain. They vowed to repeal dozens of his laws, many of which have benefited millions of citizens and thousands of companies.
The election comes at the height of summer, with millions of voters likely to be vacationing at their usual polling places. But requests to vote by mail have skyrocketed, and officials estimate voter turnout at 70%.
At the end of the month of heatwaves, average temperatures are predicted to be above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and 5 to 10 degrees Celsius above normal in many parts of the country on Sunday.
Spain’s 36 million voters will be able to cast their ballots between 9am and 8pm (07:00 and 18:00 GMT), with near-final results expected at midnight.
