MADRID (AFP) – Spaniards were voting yesterday in local and regional polls seen as a barometer for a year-end general election which surveys suggest Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will lose, heralding a return of the right.
The stakes are high for Sanchez, whose Socialist party governs the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy in coalition with the far-left Podemos.
Voters were casting ballots for mayors in 8,131 municipalities while also electing leaders and assemblies in 12 of Spain’s 17 regions – 10 of which are currently run by the Socialists.
Some 35.5 million people were voting in the local elections while 18.3 million were eligible to cast ballots in the regional polls.
Sanchez has been in office since 2018, and yesterday’s elections find him facing several obstacles: voter fatigue with his left-wing government, soaring inflation and falling purchasing power.
Sanchez expressed confidence that voters would cast their ballots responsibly.

PHOTO: AFP
“Most of our citizens will vote positively… for what is important: for public healthcare, public education and housing policies for our young people,” he said after voting in Madrid.
Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), urged people “to vote massively” and ensure the next government was a strong one.
“We have difficult years ahead of us but… the stronger the government, the stronger our democracy will be and the faster we will get out of the economic, institutional and social problems we have in our country,” he said.
Feijoo denounced Sanchez 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.
He positioned yesterday’s vote as a referendum on “Sanchismo”, a derogatory term for Sanchez’s policies.
In his campaign closing remarks, Sanchez focussed on his government’s record in bolstering the economy, fighting drought and managing Spain’s increasingly sparse water resources.
“Social democratic policies suit Spain a lot better than neo-liberal policies because we manage the economy a lot better,” he said.
Of the 12 regions where new leaders will be elected, 10 are currently run by Socialists, either alone or in coalition.
The number of regions the PP manages to wrest from the Socialists will be important in determining public perceptions of whether Feijoo won the first round – and whether his victory in the year-end general election is a foregone conclusion.
But Feijoo has his own problems, in particular the far-right Vox, the third-largest party in parliament, which hopes to become an indispensable partner for the PP.
Since last year, the two parties have governed together in just one region, Castilla y Leon, which was not voting yesterday.
Aware that the key to winning the general election is conquering the centre, Feijoo has sought to moderate the PP’s line since taking over last year, while also keeping Vox at a distance.
A strong regional showing by Vox would put him on the back foot.
The campaign, which ended on Friday, was marred in the final week by allegations of fraud involving postal votes, largely implicating individuals allied with the Socialists.
The allegations pose yet another hurdle for Sanchez, who made good governance a priority in contrast to the corruption of various former right-wing governments.