Video: Spain votes: Polling stations open across the country (Reuters)
No party in Spain has won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections, but the right-wing bloc will be able to form a government, according to preliminary samples released Sunday. According to two of them, the conservative People's Party will be the largest, but it will need to cooperate with the far-right Vox party to form a government.
According to one sample, based on 150,350 people asked about their intentions throughout the campaign until Saturday, the Conservative Party would get 31 seats in the lower house of parliament, which has 149 seats, Vox in 2018. The rival bloc, the left-wing coalition, led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has 70 seats, according to the sample.
Sánchez, Spain's prime minister since <>, brought forward the elections following a defeat by left-wing parties in May's local elections, which were held during the summer months, for the first time in Spain's modern history. Many expressed frustration, with more than two and a half million voters registering through mail-in envelopes.
If Vox, who holds anti-feminist and anti-immigration views, is part of the next coalition, it would be the first time a far-right party has entered Spain's government since the fall of Francisco Franco's dictatorship in the late <>s.
The leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, votes at a polling station in Madrid, Spain, July 23, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)
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