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POLITICS

Spain’s local elections set to put PM on the back foot

Spain votes Sunday in local and regional polls which will be a barometer for a year-end general election that surveys suggest Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will lose, heralding a return of the right.

Spain's local elections set to put PM on the back foot
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez takes part in the closing rally of Socialist Party (PSOE)'s electoral campaign in Barcelona on May 26, 2023. Photo: Pau BARRENA/AFP.

The stakes are high for Sánchez, whose Socialist party governs the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy in coalition with the far-left Podemos.

Voters are 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.

In an update at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), five hours into voting, participation in the local elections stood at 36.54 percent, or 1.59 percentage points higher than in the 2019 polls, official figures showed. 

Some 35.5 million people are voting in the local elections while 18.3 million are eligible to cast ballots in the regional polls. 

Balloting ends at 8:00 pm, with initial results due out two hours later. 

Sánchez has been in office since 2018, and Sunday’s elections find him facing several obstacles: voter fatigue with his left-wing government, soaring inflation and falling purchasing power. 

“I do think it’s an important test (ahead of the year-end elections). It’s the only way we have of expressing our opinion about all these years they’ve been in government,” 61-year-old doctor Maria Alonso told AFPTV after voting in Madrid, without saying who earnt her vote. 

Microbiologist Irene Diaz said the local and regional polls “were as important” as the upcoming general election. 

“At the end of the day, these are elections in your city which involve laws and legislation that will end up impacting your day-to-day life,” the 30-year-old said. 

Right-wing targets ‘Sanchismo’

Sánchez expressed confidence that voters would cast their ballots responsibly.

“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 Núñez Feijóo, 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.

Feijóo has 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 has positioned Sunday’s vote as a referendum on “Sanchismo”, a derogatory term for Sánchez’s policies.

In his campaign closing remarks, Sánchez focused 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 Feijóo has won this first round — and whether his victory in the year-end general election is a foregone conclusion.

A far-right problem

But Feijóo 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 on Sunday.
 
Aware that the key to winning the general election is conquering the centre, Feijóo 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 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 Sánchez, who has made good governance a priority in contrast to the corruption of various former right-wing governments.

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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

Spain’s Foreign Minister calls for Palestinian state and more aid for Gaza

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manual Albares called on the international community Thursday to rally for a ceasefire in Gaza "as a first step" to peace between "a Palestinian state side by side" with Israel.

Spain's Foreign Minister calls for Palestinian state and more aid for Gaza

In a joint conference with Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, where Albares also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Spain’s top diplomat said there must be “a framework in place to allow Palestine to live in peace.”

There had to be “a ceasefire and an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that an innocent civilian population is suffering”, Albares said.

He also called on the international community to “set its sights” on the “innocent Palestinians who have lost their lives” and those “threatened by famine”.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of famine in the Gaza Strip, in particular in the cut-off north of the territory.

According to Egypt’s presidential spokesman, Sisi and Albares discussed “the necessity of supporting” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which coordinates aid in Gaza.

The agency faces a funding crisis after multiple donor nations, including the United States, suspended funding following Israeli allegations that about a dozen of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gaza employees were involved in the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.

Madrid this month announced an additional €20 million in funding for UNRWA.

The surprise Hamas attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Spain, along with Ireland and Belgium, has been one of the European countries most critical of Israel’s offensive and repeatedly pushed for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

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Israel’s retaliatory campaign, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 31,341 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Albares and Shoukry reiterated the need for intensified aid operations in Gaza, with the latter warning recent airdrops and a planned maritime aid corridor were not sufficient.

Airdrops, which Egypt has taken part in, “were limited in volume” and “posed danger to the civilians they are meant to help,” said Shoukry.

Last week, a malfunctioning parachute caused airdropped aid to kill five people in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Spanish charity vessel Open Arms is approaching from Cyprus and Washington has ordered US troops to build a temporary pier off Gaza.

But US officials expect the pier to take up to two months to construct.

“What do we do for two months? Are children supposed to continue to die while they wait?” said Shoukry.

“We must tackle this realistically,” he said, adding that “what is available to us now are land crossings”.

“There are six crossings that Israel controls and that should be opened to humanitarian assistance,” Shoukry said.

He said that Israeli inspections of all aid shipments at the crossing were behind delays at the Gaza-Egypt border and not Egyptian restrictions.

Shoukry said trucks are subjected to “deliberate delays in authorisation, intended to prolong the siege of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

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