Conservatives aim to oust Pedro Sánchez as Spain votes in summer election
Spaniards headed to the polls on Sunday with the choice of re-electing Pedro Sánchez and his fractious leftwing alliance or letting conservatives reverse the prime minister’s reforms in a possible pact with the hard right, Financial Times reports.
Most polls suggest the opposition People’s party will win the snap general election but fall short of an outright majority.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the PP leader, will probably need the support of the Vox party to take office, meaning the hard right could enter government for the first time since Spain’s return to democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. A conservative win would make Spain the latest European country to shift to the right, joining Italy — whose prime minister Giorgia Meloni appeared via video link at a Vox rally this month — as well as Greece, Sweden and Finland.
In the campaign’s final days Feijóo was criticised for refusing to take part in a second debate with Sánchez and had to pause campaigning because of a bad back. He was also caught making the false claim that the PP had always increased pensions in line with inflation when in government.
