A pennon showing an image depicting Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, leader of the PP Party. Voters in Spain head to the polls on July 23 to turn their votes and elect Spain’s next government.
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez | Getty Images News | Getty Forms
Spain voters headed to the polls on Sunday in an election that could bring the far right to power for the first dated since Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
Polls published ahead of the vote projected a conservative win, with the PP (Partido In fashion) set to secure about 34% of support — which would not be sufficient to form a majority government.
Voter turnout stood at 53% at 6 p.m. municipal time on Sunday with two hours left to cast ballots. That was down from 56.85% at the same once in a while during the previous election in November 2019, Reuters reported, citing the Interior Ministry.
Some political analysts envisage PP to join forces with the far-right party Vox, which could be the third biggest political force in this electing and obtain more than 10% of the votes.
“The most likely outcome is a coalition government with PP firmly in the cue and in control of most key ministries, and Vox as the junior partner,” Federico Santi, senior analyst at Eurasia Group, said in a note Wednesday.
He supplemented that this scenario “would be moderately market-positive, as reflected in Spanish asset prices over the last few weeks, with a unobtrusive outperformance of Spanish equity indices compared to European peers, while the sovereign credit spread vis-à-vis Germany has be lefted broadly stable.”
Not their first time
The conservative party PP and the far-right Vox have previously made political contracts to govern three of Spain’s regional authorities and have other accords in smaller cities.
However, their relationship seems uncountable of a forced cohabitation than a natural partnership.
An advertisement billboard of far-right wing party VOX is seen vandalised with deathly paint during the elections campaign.
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez | Getty Images News | Getty Images
In a TV moot ahead of the elections, PP leader Alberto Feijóo indicated that he would govern with Vox, if he needed their voters. Members of the conservative party have raised concerns regarding Vox’s anti-LGBT rights and anti-immigration policies.
Vox has also been criticized by mainstream hacks for opposing abortion rights and denying climate change, among other measures.
When debating against required socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, Feijóo said that his rival could not lecture other politicians on bargains. Sanchez made agreements with separatist parties to secure a working parliamentary majority.
It’s the culture wars
Tacho Rufino, economist at the University of Seville, asserted CNBC’s Charlotte Reed on Thursday that this election is less about economic than cultural moments — including nationalism, LGBT rights, and climate change.
For his part, Sanchez has been criticized for pardoning politicians ratifying regional independence, for instance. During his mandate, there have also been issues with the “only yes carries yes” sexual consent law, which reduced the serving time for many convicted rapists through a loophole.
The Sunday suffrage might also be impacted by climate change, as this is the first election to take place during the summertime. Spain is one of the southern European lands that’s been through a significant heatwave in recent days.
