The Spaniards are called to the polls this Sunday, May 28 for a municipal and regional ballot. This election looks like a general rehearsal before the legislative elections at the end of the year, the most important election at the national level, Spain being a parliamentary monarchy. Opinion polls also seem to predict a defeat of the Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, and a return to power of the right.
Polling stations opened at 9 a.m. this morning and will close at 8 p.m. tonight. The first results are expected around 10 p.m. as there are no exit polls in Spain. Accompanied by his wife, Pedro Sanchez voted shortly before 9:30 a.m. in an office in Madrid.
"If the left does better than expected and manages to retain control of most of the regional governments at stake [...], it will mean that the legislative elections will be very tight and he could stay in power" at the end of the election. year, says Federico Santi, an analyst at the Eurasiagroup think tank in a study published this week.
"But if the polls, which predict a push to the right, are correct, the successes in the regions will provide the leader of the main opposition party, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, who leads the People's Party [PP, conservative, Editor's note], the momentum necessary to win the legislative elections in the fall, ”continues Mr. Santi. Prime Minister since 2018, Mr. Sanchez approaches this double ballot with several handicaps: the wear and tear of power, the resumption of inflation - even if it is much lower in Spain than in most other countries of the European Union – and the resulting sharp drop in purchasing power.
So much so that Mr. Feijoo has done everything to turn these elections into a national referendum on Pedro Sanchez, whom he describes as subservient to the far left and to Basque and Catalan separatist parties on which his minority government depends in Parliament to make vote on his reforms.
"I come to ask for the voices of Spain which wants to put an end to Sanchism from Sunday," Mr. Feijoo launched Friday evening in Madrid during his last electoral rally, using the term he coined to describe the Prime Minister's policy. Mr. Sanchez, meanwhile, has campaigned on his government's record, particularly in the economic field and in the fight against drought and water management, an increasingly central issue in Spain. .
"Social democratic policies suit Spain better than neoliberal policies [because] we manage the economy much better," he said on Friday evening as he wrapped up his campaign in Barcelona. Mr. Sanchez is all the more vulnerable because, of the 12 regions that renew their assembly, the Socialists lead 10, either directly or as members of a coalition. The number of regions that the PP manages to wrest from the Socialists will depend on what happens next: if it wins many, public opinion will consider that Mr. Feijoo has won this first round and that his arrival at the Moncloa Palace, the seat of the presidency of the government at the end of the year is inevitable. He also plays very big.
Aware of the fact that the legislative elections will be won at the center, Mr. Feijoo has endeavored, since his accession to the head of the PP, a year ago, to offer the image of a moderate party and therefore to keep Vox from a distance. A very good Vox score in many regions would therefore be dangerous for him. The campaign, which ended on Friday evening, has been marked in recent days by several cases of fraud, in this case alleged purchases of postal votes, which have mainly implicated elected officials or socialist candidates. .
