More than 6 million people have the right to vote in the most populous region of Spain, where temperatures were expected to drop slightly after a week of extreme heat that officials feared would reduce turnout. Polls opened at 9 a.m. (7 a.m. GMT) on Sunday and are scheduled to close at 8 p.m., with final results expected a few hours later. Polls have shown that the People’s Party (PP) would win about 50 of the 109 seats in Andalusia’s parliament, more than all the left-wing parties combined. The party rules the southern region, known for its white-walled villages and Costa del Sol seaside resorts since 2018 in alliance with the smaller center-right Ciudadanos party. The Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) is projected to win about 33 seats, the same as in the last elections in 2018, when they were ousted from power in Andalusia for the first time since the formation of the regional government in 1982. The expected storm of the PSOE in Sunday’s vote was attributed to a scandal over the misuse of public funds intended to tackle unemployment. “All the social progress that has been made in Andalusia and Spain has been made on the initiative of the Socialists, never from the right,” Sanchez said at the last rally on Friday in Seville, the region’s capital. While the PP appeared to be on track to win the election, it was unclear whether it would secure an absolute majority, which would allow it to govern on its own. If it does not, the party will probably need to seek support from the far-right Vox party by bringing it to the regional government, as happened earlier this year in the northern part of Castilla y León. Until now, Vox has supported PP in Andalusia but from outside government. Any deal with Vox would complicate the efforts of PP’s new national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to project a more modest picture. The leader of the PP in Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonia, urged voters to hand over a “strong” government that is not “burdened” by Vox. After the vote in Malaga on Sunday, he called on voters to cast their ballots, saying a large turnout would “show that we love our institutions”. Vox has called for the abolition of Spain’s regional governments. If the polls are correct, it will be the PSOE’s third consecutive defeat in regional elections by the PP after voting in Madrid in May 2021 and in Castilla y León in February. Antonio Barroso, an analyst at political consultancy Teneo, said the defeat in Andalusia would be a “serious blow” to the Socialists and would mean that “Sanchez could face a difficult battle to be re-elected” next year. “The PP seems to be gaining momentum and voters’ concerns about inflation could only make it harder for Sánchez to sell his government’s achievements in the next parliamentary elections,” he said. Spain’s inflation reached 8.7% in May, as the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuels global inflation, especially through rising energy prices. Carscar García Luengo, a professor of political science at the University of Granada, said the PP had tried to present itself in Andalusia as a “reasonable alternative” to the center. The strategy seemed to work, as the party was ready on Sunday to win the support of almost 17% of voters who voted for the Socialists in 2018, according to a Sigma Dos poll for El Mundo newspaper.
