Spain votes in election that could swing the country to the right
investing.comBy Horaci Garcia and Guillermo Martinez
MADRID (Reuters) -Spaniards voted in a potentially close-run general election on Sunday that could see Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's governing Socialists lose power and a far-right party make up part of a new government for the first time in 50 years.
Sanchez called the election early after the left took a drubbing in local elections in May, but his gamble to wrong-foot his opponents could backfire.
Opinion polls show the election will likely produce a win for Alberto Nunez Feijoo's centre-right People's Party, but to form a government it would need to partner with Santiago Abascal's far-right Vox. This would be the first time a far-right party has entered government since Francisco Franco's dictatorship ended in the 1970s.
Voting will close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) (9 p.m. in the Canary Islands) when voter surveys conducted via phone calls over the past week will be released. All ballots are expected to be counted by midnight, confirming the party with the most votes.
Both the left and right blocs have the potential to form coalitions, which will need at least 176 seats in the 350-seat lower house of congress. A new parliament must be constituted by Aug. 17, but negotiations between parties to form a government can go on for months.
An analysis of opinion poll data by Spain's El Pais newspaper on July 19 when polling ended projected a 55% chance of a PP/Vox coalition, a 15% chance of Sanchez staying in power with a patchwork leftist coalition and 23% chance of a hung parliament and a repeat election.
As Sanchez went to vote in Madrid he was greeted by one small group of people shouting «liar» and a similar-sized group shouting «prime minister», TVE footage showed. He told reporters
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