Spain: the leader of the right calls to "confirm the change" during the legislative elections

The leader of the conservative People's Party (PP) on Tuesday called on Spaniards to "confirm the change" initiated by the victory of the right in Sunday's municipal and regional elections by giving it a clear majority in the early legislative elections on July 23.

Sunday's double vote "was the clearest confirmation of the desire for change that exists throughout Spain," Alberto Núñez Feijóo told leaders of the main opposition party, meeting in Madrid to take stock of these elections and prepare the future. "We have taken the first step, now we have to take the next one, the definitive one," added Alberto Núñez Feijóo, candidate for the post of prime minister.

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The People's Party won the municipal elections hands down with 31.5% of the vote against 28.11% for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE), as well as the regional elections, in which it conquered six of the ten Socialist-led regions that were at stake. For good measure, he consolidated his power in the two regions he already ruled, including Madrid, by winning an absolute majority of seats in the newly elected assemblies.

This strong surge of the right, described as a "tide" and a "tsunami" by two of the regional presidents defeated on Sunday, led Pedro Sánchez, head of a minority coalition government, to dissolve Parliament on Monday and call legislative elections for July 23. According to the original timetable, the elections, the exact date of which had not been set, were to be held at the end of the year, probably in early December.

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The PP will start as the favourite in the July elections, but according to polls it will need the support of Vox, a far-right party that has emerged as the country's third largest political force in the municipal elections with 7.19% of the vote, to be able to govern if it wins. This is also the case in almost all the regions taken by the PP on Sunday from the Socialists, where it will have to conclude agreements with Vox to set up executives. The PP and Vox have already governed together since last year in one region.

Analysts believe that Pedro Sánchez will focus his campaign on this theme, that of the risk that an alliance of the PP with the far right would pose to mobilize the left on July 23. "Spain has spoken out loud and clear and has shown its firm will to put an end to 'Sanchism', but it is not yet done: we must make an extra effort in the coming months," said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, calling on the Spaniards to "confirm the change".

"Sanchism" is a term coined by Alberto Núñez Feijóo that covers all the policies of Pedro Sánchez's government. "There is a choice to be made between Sánchez and Spain and I have no doubt that the majority of Spaniards will choose Spain," he insisted. "'Sanchism' will end in 54 days," he concluded.