On Sunday, the Spanish go to the polls to elect the President of the Government, 350 representatives for the Lower House and 208 Senators. It is expected that 37.5 million citizens turn out to vote, 2.3 million of them reside abroad. Below are the major events as they occur.
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8:00 p.m.: The conservatives would be victorious in the elections. According to the exit polls released so far, the conservative Popular Party (PP) would have managed to consolidate between 145 and 150 seats in the legislature, while the far-right VOX party could get between 24 or 27 lawmakers.
On the other hand, on the progressive side of the Iberian politics, the Socialist Party could reach between 113 and 118 legislators and the SUMAR coalition between 28 and 31 seats.
If the official vote count confirms these preliminary results, the Spanish conservatives will govern with an absolute majority.
2:00 p.m.: Presidential candidates encourage citizen participation. Confident of achieving victory, Pedro Sanchez, the current Spanish president and presidential candidate for the Socialist Party (PSOE), asked citizens to go to the polls to form “a strong government.”
Other presidential candidates also called on the people to flock to the polling stations to achieve a change of direction.
Yolanda Diaz, the leader of the leftist coalition SUMAR and second second vice president of the current government, appealed to all citizens to vote since “today we are at stake to wake up tomorrow with more rights, more democracy and more freedom.”
National divides are so key to Spain’s politics that far-right party Vox even proposes to ban pro-independence parties. For the Catalan left, today’s election is about resisting Spanish nationalist forces who want to crush their autonomy.https://t.co/wm3kp9FpSw
— Jacobin (@jacobin)
July 23, 2023
Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, the candidate of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), trusts that citizens will decide “clearly” to have a “solid government” that will lead them towards a “new era”.
Santiago Abascal, the candidate of the far-right VOX party, believes that his organization will obtain a “heroic” result and encouraged voters to vote for Spain to take a different path.
The majority of the regional presidents also supported the calls to the polls. In Catalonia, for example, President Pere Aragones, a member of the pro-independence party ERC, called for “filling the polls with conviction because the stakes are high.”
Meanwhile, Isabel Diaz, a PP militant and president of the Community of Madrid, hopes that Spain will change after these elections.
Emiliano Garcia-Page, a socialist politician who is president of Castilla-La Mancha, called for Spaniards to maintain “the greatest possible degree of unity and cohesion” after the election results are known.
The spectre of the far right is returning to Europe, and ����Spain’s election this Sunday will be a key test.
For decades, Iberia has been immune to growing far-right influence because of their recent experience with fascism. But #Vox‘s rise shows this immunity has expired. ��1/9 pic.twitter.com/W7iLFVd4ME
— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating)
July 21, 2023
Background information: In Spain, general elections are held every four years, unless the president orders the early dissolution of the government, as it has happened on this occasion.
In the 2023 elections, the conservative bloc led by the Popular Party (PP) and the progressive bloc led by the Socialist Party (PSOE) face each other. During the electoral campaign, both alliances have tried to get enough support to form the next national government.
If they do not succeed on their own, each of the two parties will be forced to try to reach a government majority after agreeing with the far-right formation VOX in the case of the PP and with the left-wing coalition SUMAR in the case of the PSOE.
