Spain's opposition People's Party PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo left Madrid to listen to Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in a plenary session on 31 January 2023 at the Senate in Madrid. Spain went to the polls yesterday to pick thousands of city and regional representatives as the bellwether of a general election in December that will pit Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez against the right-wing Party, or PP, leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo.
The odds were high for Sanchez, who heads the Socialist Party of the eurozone, which leads the eurozone's fourth-largest economy in a coalition with the far-left Podemos.
Voters cast their ballots for mayors in 8,131 municipalities across the nation, while also electing leaders and assemblies in 12 of Spain's 17 regions - 10 of which are currently run by the Socialists.
Voting opened at 9am local time and closed at 8pm, with about 35.5 million voters eligible to cast ballots in the local elections and 18.3 million eligible to vote in the regional elections.
Spain doesn't issue exit polls, with the initial results due out at about 10 p.m.
If the left surpasses expectations and manages to retain control of most regional governments in play, this would suggest the national elections will be very closely fought and bode well for the left's chances of staying in power, Eurasia Group analyst Federico Santi said last week.
But if the polls were correct, Santi said, success at a regional level would provide opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the PP, with the momentum he needs to win the end-of-year election.
Sunday's vote found Sanchez, who has served since 2018, at several disadvantages.
He faced voter fatigue with his government, soaring inflation - even though the rate is lower in Spain than other EU nations - and theresulting decrease in purchasing power.
He has struggled to contain the fallout of repeated crises that have shaken up his left-wing coalition.
He did everything in his power to turn the elections into a national referendum on Sanchez.
In campaigning, he accused the prime minister of pandering to the far left but also to the Basque and Catalan separatist parties on which his minority government has relied for parliamentary support to push its reforms through.
I have come to ask for the votes from Spain that want to overthrow 'Sanchismo' this coming Sunday,' he said, using a derogatory term for Sanchez's policies.
In closing remarks, Sanchez focused on his government's record in boosting the economy, fighting a drought and managing Spain's water resources, which is becoming increasingly important as climate change is taking a toll on the nation's economy.
There is a much better case for social democratic policies than neoliberal policies, because we manage the economy better than neoliberal policies, he said.
The number of regions in which the PP manages to wrest from the Socialists will be important in determining the public perception of whether Feijoo has won this first round - and whether his election at the end of the year is a foregone conclusion.