Final opinion polls, that were published on Monday, tipped the right-wing Popular Party (PP) to win the most seats but without securing a working parliamentary majority.

That could force the PP to form a coalition government with Vox, in what would be the first time a far-right party holds a share of power in Spain since the end of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco in 1975.

But the PP’s campaign has stumbled in the final stretch with its leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo facing renewed questions about his ties with notorious drug trafficker Marcial Dorado back in the 1990s when he was a senior official in the regional government of Galicia.

And he was also caught out over incorrect claims during a TV debate that the PP has always approved pension hikes.

“I see the Popular Party as running out of steam while the Socialists are making a comeback,” Sanchez told public television on Friday morning.

“We’re going to win the elections and we’re going to win them resoundingly!,” he added at a final rally on Friday evening in Getafe, a southern Madrid suburb.

Earlier this week, Sánchez laid into Feijóo for “missing an opportunity to clarify the nature of his relationship” with Dorado, a tobacco smuggler who was later convicted of drug trafficking.

In 2013, the left-leaning El Pais newspaper published photos of the pair on Dorado’s boat and on holiday in Ibiza and the Canary Islands when Feijóo headed Galicia’s health service.

Sánchez has mocked Feijóo’s claim that Google did not exist at that time, meaning it was difficult to know what Dorado was up to.

‘Wind of change’

The prime minister has centred his re-election campaign on his economic record, highlighting Spain’s growth and inflation figures that have outperformed most of its EU peers.

While most recent opinion polls suggested the PP and Vox are on track to form a working majority in the 350-seat parliament, some showed the pair falling short.

That would give the Socialists a chance to form another government because they have more options to create alliances with the far-left Sumar coalition and other smaller parties.

But analysts said they could not rule out the possibility that neither side could secure a working majority, which would force a repeat election as happened in 2019.

In office since 2018, Sanchez called the early election after his Socialist party and its far-left coalition partners suffered a drubbing in May’s local and regional elections.

Feijóo told Friday’s El Mundo newspaper that he “sensed a wind of change” in the country.

‘Rubbish’

During his final campaign rally in Galicia, he appealed for massive support, saying he wanted to govern “alone”.

Feijóo has vowed to undo many of Sánchez’s laws, including one which allows anyone 16 and over to change their gender on their ID card on the basis of a simple statement.

He also lashed out at Sánchez over his remarks about Dorado.

“I did not expect the prime minister would use this rubbish to try to discredit his opponent,” he told COPE radio.

The PP and Vox have attacked Sánchez’s minority coalition for relying on the votes of Catalan and Basque separatist parties to pass legislation, denouncing it as a “betrayal” of Spain.

Sánchez, meanwhile, has blasted the PP for forming local and regional alliances with Vox, which opposes abortion, denies climate change and rejects the need for government efforts to tackle gender violence.

Since the May 28th elections, Vox is now in power in more than 140 municipalities – either alone or in conjunction with the PP – and also jointly governs with the PP in two other regions.