Spain's opposition People's Party (PP) leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo (left), listens to Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a plenary session at the Senate in Madrid, on Jan 31, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)
MADRID — Spaniards went to the polls on Sunday to pick thousands of city and regional representatives in a vote seen as the bellwether of a general election in December that will pit Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez against right-wing Popular Party, or PP, leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo.
The stakes were high for Sanchez, whose Socialist Party governs the eurozone's fourth-largest economy in coalition with the far-left Podemos.
Voters were to cast their ballots for mayors in 8,131 municipalities across the country while also electing leaders and assemblies in 12 of Spain's 17 regions — 10 of which are currently run by the Socialists.
Voting opened at 9 am local time and was set to close at 8 pm with about 35.5 million voters eligible to cast ballots in the local elections and 18.3 million eligible to vote in the regional elections.
Spain does not issue exit polls, with the initial results due out at about 10 pm.
If the left "exceeds expectations and manages to retain control of most regional governments in play… this would suggest the national elections will be very closely fought, and bode well for the left's chances of staying in power", Eurasia Group analyst Federico Santi said last week.
But if the polls — which forecast a shift to the right — were correct, success at a regional level would provide opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the PP, with the momentum he needs to win the end-of-year election, Santi said.
Sunday's vote found Sanchez, in office since 2018, at several disadvantages.
Soaring inflation
He faced voter fatigue with his government, soaring inflation — even though the rate is lower in Spain than other EU nations — and the resulting fall in purchasing power.
He has also struggled to contain the fallout from repeated crises that have shaken his left-wing coalition.
Feijoo did everything in his power to turn the elections into a national referendum on Sanchez.
In campaigning, he denounced the prime minister as not only pandering to the far left, but also to the Basque and Catalan separatist parties on which his minority government has relied for parliamentary support to push its reforms through.
"I have come to ask for the votes from Spain that want to overthrow 'Sanchismo' this coming Sunday," Feijoo said as he closed his campaign on Friday night, using a derogatory term for Sanchez's policies.
In his closing remarks, Sanchez focused on his government's record in bolstering the economy, fighting a drought and managing Spain's water resources, an increasingly important issue as climate change gathers pace.
"Social democratic policies suit Spain a lot better than neoliberal policies, because we manage the economy a lot better," he said.
The number of regions that the PP manages to wrest from the Socialists will be important in determining the public perception of whether Feijoo has won this first round — and whether his election as premier at the year's end is a foregone conclusion.