Once a stronghold of the left, Andalusia voted in regional elections this Sunday (19), a year and a half before the general election, which saw a serious setback for the Socialists of the head of government, Pedro Sánchez.
According to a GAD3 poll for Andalusian and Spanish public television stations, the conservatives of the People’s Party (PP) will have an absolute majority (between 58 and 61 deputies), nearly double the number of seats in the Socialist Party (26-30) .
That way, the PP wouldn’t need Vox’s far-right to rule, as in Leon and Castile, which would jeopardize the bet on the moderation of neo-national conservative leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo.
“I hope” the poll results are confirmed, but “the night is long,” PP candidate and outgoing Andalusian president Juan Moreno Bonilla told the media.
More than six million Andalusians in the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Malaga and Seville were called to vote on a day when temperatures declared a ceasefire after a week of heatwaves and thermometers above 40ºC.
The polling stations opened at 09:00 local time (4:00 GMT) and closed at 20:00 (3:00 GMT) local time. Practically exact results will be known at 22:00 (17:00 GMT).
Moreno called for strong mobilization as he voted for Málaga, who feared that his victorious supporters would use the day to head to the beach.
Calling the president at the end of his term, he said, “I ask all of us to vote and have an important participation, from the young, the old, the women, the men, the inner parts of Andalusia, the coast.”
Within two hours of the chapters closing, 44.5% of voters cast 1.9% fewer votes than in 2018.
According to research by GAD3, the Socialist Party (PSOE) had a similar result to the 2018 elections (33), in which it lost its regional power for the first time since the establishment of autonomy in 1982 after a corruption scandal.
PP runs away from the far right
With a population of 8.5 million, Spain’s most populous and second most populous region has so far been a stronghold of the left, and Sánchez appealed to history to ask for votes.
“The greatest advances in this country have come from the hands of PSOE,” the president said on Twitter.
These could be the third consecutive regional elections in which Pedro Sánchez’s socialists were defeated after last year’s May in Madrid and February in Castile and León.
‘Battle uphill’ for Sánchez
Losing in Andalusia would be a “heavy blow” for the Socialists and would mean “Sánchez could face a tough fight for re-election” next year, said Antonio Barroso, analyst at political consultancy Teneo.
“The PP seems to be gaining more and more power, and voters’ concerns about inflation will make it harder for Sáncez’s government to sell its successes in the upcoming legislative election.”
With an annual inflation of 8.7% in May, Spain could not escape the international context of high food and energy prices, but the main shock measures – fuel subsidies or gas price caps – did not serve to contain it. to them.
In Andalusia, the People’s Party could attract a significant number of ex-Socialist voters (almost 17% of those who voted for the PSOE in 2018, according to the Sigma Dos poll for El Mundo), outpacing Sánchez in Feijóo’s electoral conflict. Centre.
Professor Óscar García Luengo said the PP “has a very visible strategy” as “an effort to present itself as this sensible alternative, to present itself as a centre, centre-right option”.
A symbolic moment of socialist defeat would be to cease being the top-voted power for the first time in Seville, the birthplace of former head of government Felipe González (1982-1996).
source: Noticias
[author_name]
