Spain’s conservative contender Alberto Nunez Feijoo enters the final week of campaigning with his sights set on winning enough seats to allow him to govern without having to lean on formal support from the far-right party Vox.
(Bloomberg) — Spain’s conservative contender Alberto Nunez Feijoo enters the final week of campaigning with his sights set on winning enough seats to allow him to govern without having to lean on formal support from the far-right party Vox.
Feijoo’s People’s Party is forecast to win 151 seats in the July 23 election, according to a poll by GAD3 published by ABC newspaper, the largest tracking poll carried by Spanish media.
Vox has 29, giving the right-wing bloc a combined 180 seats, four more than it needs to form a government. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists would have 115 deputies, according to the survey published on the final day that Spanish media can divulge polling data ahead of the vote.
Feijoo’s PP is placing a strong focus this week on surpassing 160 seats, a number it thinks would give it enough clout to negotiate support from Vox without folding the party into a formal coalition.
To achieve this, the PP is striving to boost its vote count in 18 of Spain’s smaller provinces, where it can be easier to deny seats to Vox, thereby increasing its own tally without weakening the overall result for the right.
There are 50 provinces in Spain spread across 17 regions. Each of the small provinces sends between three and five deputies to parliament.
Govern Solo
Feijoo has repeatedly said that he wants to govern by himself, without a coalition partner, as his party has managed to do in Spain’s largest province, Andalusia, since last year. Meanwhile, the PP and Vox have formed coalitions in several regions since local elections were held on May 28.
Polling shows a clear advantage for the right-wing bloc, with the combined votes for PP and Vox yielding a result in excess of the parliamentary majority of 176 in the vast majority of polls. Meanwhile, the surveys show the left bloc of Sanchez’s Socialists and far-left group Sumar on course to win around 135 seats.
To be sure, polls in other media show it may prove trickier for the PP and Vox to form government. A poll by 40dB for El Pais newspaper has the PP at 135 and Vox at 38, three short of the required majority, while the Socialists stand at 110.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.