Andalucíans to vote in election seen as gauge of Spain’s wider political change | Spain

Voters in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia will cast their votes in this weekend’s election, which is likely to give the conservative People’s Party (PP) an outright majority and inflict another debilitating defeat on Pedro Sánchez’s embattled socialists, previously one of their proudest strongholds.

Sunday’s elections in Spain’s most populous region – the last major poll before next year’s general election – will serve as a barometer for broader voter views and could also reveal whether the popularity of the far-right Vox party has peaked.

The PP, which has ruled the former socialist stronghold for the past seven years, is trying to frame the election as a referendum on Sánchez, the country’s prime minister, whose inner circle, party and administration face a series of corruption allegations.

According to polls, incumbent PP regional president Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla is on track to nearly repeat his result in the last election in 2022, when conservatives won 58 of the seats in the 109-seat regional parliament.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), which governed Andalusia from 1982 to 2019, is set for its worst results ever, falling from 30 seats to 28.

Vox, which entered mainstream Spanish politics in the 2018 Andalusia regional elections, is expected to add one or two more seats to the 14 it won four years ago.

Moreno hopes another absolute majority will mean he will not need to remain dependent on Vox, which has tried to pull the PP further to the right in regional coalitions by insisting that Spaniards receive priority over foreign nationals in housing and public services. The regional president seems so confident in his majority that He trashed Vox’s so-called “national priority” policy as an “empty slogan”.

Both Moreno and the PP’s national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, want to use Sunday’s vote to advance the party nationwide by making the most of the scandals that have engulfed the national government.

Moreno referred to his PSOE rival, former national minister and deputy prime minister María Jesús Montero: “woman from the past” and talked about what needed to be done “Bury bad policies and leave the past in the past to build the future”. Feijóo was even more blunt, saying Andalusian voters must choose between “the conspiracy led by Sánchez and monitored by Montero.” [Moreno’s] crack team”.

Recent events have put socialists under even greater pressure. Montero was roundly criticized earlier this week for referencing: Death of two Guardia Civil officers who died while pursuing drug traffickers It was considered a “workplace accident” off the coast of Andalusia. He later corrected himself and said the deaths occurred “in the line of duty.”

Moreno also found himself under fire. With 42.2% of Andalusian voters see healthcare as their region’s biggest problemhis handling of a cancer screening scandal came to the fore again during the campaign.

Towards the end of last year, the regional government killed more than 2,300 women. They were not notified of inconclusive mammogram results, which meant follow-up tests and treatments were missed. The delay in diagnosis triggered widespread anger and led to protests that resulted in the resignation of the regional health minister.

Moreno insisted this week: No one died due to administrative failure – a claim disputed by campaigners.

Angela Claverol, President of Breast Cancer Support Association Amama SevilleHe said at least six women died because screening results were not delivered.

He said the cancer scandal was indicative of a broader crisis in healthcare in Andalusia and that he and many others were responsible for Moreno’s privatization of the public healthcare system. Under Spain’s decentralized system, Spain’s self-governing regions are responsible for healthcare.

“It’s terrible; there are delays of up to three months for cancer surgery,” he said. “There are delays in CT scans, MRI scans, oncologist appointments, radiotherapy, etc. These delays are terrible in terms of oncology, but they are normal for ordinary people. If I request an appointment with a general practitioner in my health center, they do not give me an appointment for 21 days.”

Claverol said the public healthcare system was collapsing as the regional government increasingly used private providers.

“Instead of reinvesting that money into the public sector, hiring people, hiring doctors, hiring specialists, hiring administrative staff, what they did was move the money into the private sector,” he said.

However, Moreno said his government modernized and improved hospitals and equipment and increased capacity “See more patients and reduce waiting times so we can move towards a closer, more agile and stable healthcare system.”

Another key concern for voters in Andalusia, as elsewhere in Spain, is housing. As cities such as Seville, Malaga and Córdoba suffer the effects of overtourism, including rising rents and a shortage of places to live, local groups are calling on the regional government to focus on residents rather than tourists.

Juan Carlos Benitez, member Albayzin is habitableMoreno’s government appears to have opted for a “quantitative rather than qualitative tourism strategy,” said a residents’ association founded two years ago in response to dramatic changes in Granada’s picturesque Albaicín district.

Benítez said Granada is the latest Andalusian city to fall victim to short-term thinking that favors rapid economic growth through tourism over sustainable development. He said recent months had been “catastrophic” for the neighborhood, with a local health center closing and many prominent local buildings being sold for redevelopment.

“It will become a Disneyland-type center where no real people live and only generates money for restaurant and store owners, but does not benefit society as a whole,” Benítez added.

Madrid III. Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos University, said Sunday’s election results will be felt far beyond Andalusia as Spain prepares for general elections. Polls show that PP will finish first again next year, but will need Vox’s support to come to power.

“If Moreno Bonilla maintains his absolute majority and Vox fails to gain influence in forming a government, this will confirm the idea that Vox is currently somewhat stagnant and the PP is gaining more ground,” Simón said.

Despite performing relatively well in recent regional elections in Aragon, Extremadura and Castilla y León, he said there was a feeling that Vox was stalled in internal squabbles and that its chances of getting 20% ​​of the vote might be dwindling.

“This is a party with a good stability of around 13-14%,” Simón added. “That means nationally it’s around 17%. That’s a very good result. But it backfired on them because they already had the idea of ​​20%.” But he added that any scandal involving PP-led regions – such as the conservatives’ inept handling of deadly floods in Valencia in 2024 – could reverse Vox’s fortunes.

Simón also said socialists would be preparing for a “terrible” outcome on Sunday.

“The last poll I received showed 27 seats, so three seats less,” he said. “We’re talking about a gap of more than 20 points between the first and second sides; that’s too bad.”