Spain votes in early election marked by far-right resurgence
Madrid: Spain voted on Sunday in an uncertain snap general election marked by a resurgence of the far-right after more than four decades on the outer margins of politics.
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Opinion polls give outgoing socialist premier Pedro Sanchez a win but without the necessary majority to govern alone, meaning he will have to seek alliances in a political environment that has soured since Catalonia’s failed secession bid.
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By far the novelty of these elections is the emergence of far-right party Vox, which burst onto the scene in December regional polls in southern Andalusia and looks set to make its first-ever entrance into the national parliament.
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Polls predict it could take more than 10 per cent of the votes in a country that had no far-right party to speak of since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, in what is likely to cause further concern in Europe.
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“What I ask Spaniards is to send a clear majority that can provide stability,” Sanchez told reporters after he cast his ballot at a cultural centre in an affluent Madrid suburb shortly after polling stations opened at 9am.
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Polling stations will close at 8pm local time, with results announced later Sunday.
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Far-right surge
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Sanchez, who took power in June after ousting conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote, has warned against Spain replicating what happened in Finland’s elections two weeks ago.
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There, the far-right Finns Party came second, closely tailing the leftist Social Democrats, after polls initially predicted it would end up in fifth position.
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In Spain, polls also forecast that Vox, with its ultra-nationalist rhetoric that advocates the “defence of the Spanish nation to the end,” will come in fifth place.
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But analysts believe it could do better, saying there may be many “hidden” Vox supporters who lie when asked by pollsters who they will be voting for.
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“There is a real, true risk,” Sanchez said this week, warning that a right-wing government supported by Vox could emerge in Spain after the elections, even if opinion polls say this is unlikely.
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Catalonia shadow
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Founded by a former member of the conservative Popular Party (PP), with a strong stance against feminism and illegal immigration, Vox has risen thanks to its hard line against separatists in Catalonia.
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The region in northeastern Spain was the scene of a secession attempt in 2017 that sparked the country’s biggest crisis in decades and caused major concern in Europe.
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Since then, the crisis has continued to cast a pall over Spanish politics.
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Sanchez was forced to call Sunday’s early elections after Catalan pro-independence lawmakers in the national parliament, angered at the trial of their leaders in Madrid, refused to give him the support he needed for his 2019 budget.
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Right-wing parties have for their part lambasted Sanchez, at the head of a minority government, for his attempts to negotiate with Catalan separatists who still govern the region, accusing him of being a traitor.
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Chronic instability?
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With no party expected to get anywhere near an absolute majority in what will be the third elections in three-and-a-half years, Spain’s fragmented political landscape looks set to continue.
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If, as opinion polls predict, Sanchez wins without a majority, he will have to forge alliances with far-left Podemos — as he did over the past 10 months — but also possibly smaller groupings like Catalan separatist parties.
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He would rather not have to do that, given right-wing parties’ accusations that he cosied up with the “enemies of Spain” during his time in government.
A possible alliance with Ciudadanos has not been ruled out, even if the centre-right party’s leader Albert Rivera has made “chasing” the socialists from power a “national urgency.”
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Rivera told reporters after casting his vote in a town near Barcelona that a high turnout was needed to “usher in a new era” and change the government.
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