MADRID: Voting has closed in Spain’s closely-watched snap election that is broadly expected to banish the left and herald a return of the right, which will likely need support and help from the far right to govern, local media reported on Sunday.
AFP reported that polls closed at 1800 GMT after eleven hours of voting.
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The incumbent PM
Written-off politically several times in the past, incumbent Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, 51, has been in office since June 2018.
Spain’s first premier to be fluent in English and the former economics professor, Sanchez, took power after winning a no-confidence vote against a conservative Popular Party (PP) government with the support of other smaller leftist parties as well as Basque and Catalan separatist formations. Sanchez has boosted the country’s influence in the European Union.
Known for risk-taking, he called the snap polls after his Socialists and their far-left coalition partner Podemos suffered a defeat in regional and local elections in May.
The conservative favorite
At the helm of Spain’s right-wing Popular Party (PP) for a year, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, 61, has steadied the party after one of the worst internal crises in its history.
He headed the regional government of his native Galicia in the rural northwest for 13 years, as well as the postal service and the former national health service. On his watch, the PP has consistently topped opinion polls.
Feijoo has pledged to reverse many of Sanchez’s laws, including one seeking to tackle the legacy of the 1939-1975 dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
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He has also accused Sanchez of betraying Spain by relying on the support of Basque and Catalan separatist parties to pass laws and for pardoning Catalan leaders serving jail terms over a botched 2017 secession bid.
A moderate, Feijoo has nonetheless not ruled out an alliance with far-right Vox to govern if the PP wins the most seats but falls short of a working majority, as most polls suggest.
The PP and Vox have already reached such an agreement in several regions and municipalities after May’s elections despite Vox’s ultra-conservative stances on social issues.
The popular Communist
Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz — a member of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) — managed to attract the support of 15 small leftist parties, including Podemos, to create a new movement called Sumar which she leads.
Largely unknown when she became labour minister in 2020, this 52-year-old lawyer with an affable character has become Spain’s most trusted party leader according to polls.
She negotiated a crucial furlough agreement during the Covid crisis, secured a significant increase to the minimum wage, and pushed through a key labour reform which limits the use of temporary contracts.
The ultranationalist
A PP member since his teens, Santiago Abascal cut ties with the party in late 2013 to help found the far-right Vox which he has since led.
