Fragmented parliament featuring the first bloc of far-right legislators since return to democracy in the 1970s beckons
Spain's far-right party VOX candidate Santiago Abascal arrives to cast his vote during Spain's general election in Madrid, Spain, April 28 2019. Picture: REUTERS/SUSANA VERA
The Socialists of outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are expected to finish first. But opinion polls show no single party close to winning a majority, making it likely that any coalition deal will take weeks or months to broker and feeding in turn into a broader mood of political uncertainty across Europe.
Leaders of all five main parties, ranging from far-left Podemos through to far-right Vox, expressed similar hopes to Sanchez for a high turnout as they all cast their ballots early. With the trauma of military dictatorship under Francisco Franco, who died in 1975, still fresh in the memory for its older generation, Spain had long been seen as resistant to the nationalist, populist wave spreading across much of Europe.
Opinion polls have failed to give a clear picture of how many seats the far-right newcomer will win, but it could easily get dozens, boosted by voter discontent with the established parties and non-mainstream policies that include opposing a law on gender-based violence it says discriminates against men.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Migration is burning issue in EU election campaignIn all, around 7.5% of the more than 510 million people in the EU did not hold the citizenship of the country where they lived as of January 1, 2017, according to Eurostat.
Read more »
2019 ELECTIONS: Back to the future: Tony Leon and Thabo Mbeki on the campaign trailVoters were treated to a double blast from the past this week as the ANC resurrected former president Thabo Mbeki and the DA dragged in its founder leader Tony Leon to campaign. The home stretch to election day is unlikely to get more exciting than this.
Read more »
Final campaign push by political parties before elections | IOL NewsParties ratcheted up their election campaigns on Saturday as they accused each other of failure to deliver where they governed.
Read more »
Political parties take election campaigns to church in search of votesPresident Cyril Ramaphosa took the ANC's campaign to the KwaZulu-Natal south coast and praised the role that the Methodist Church had played in the formation of the ANC more than a century ago.
Read more »
2019 election lists: ANC urges disgruntled members to focus on campaigning
Read more »
ANC to launch app for last stretch of elections campaignThe app will give ANC members and supporters 24-hour access to information, the party says.
Read more »
2019 Election Poll: Citizens Survey poll shows ANC, DA down, EFF up – but with an uncertain voter turn-outThe 2019 Q1 South African Citizens Survey findings, released on Tuesday morning, show a decrease in support for the ANC, yet another drop in trust for Eskom, and an all-time high number of unmotivated voters.
Read more »
2019 Elections: A deep dive into gender and elections: Women on the national candidate listDaily Maverick took an in-depth look at the national candidate list, analysing gender representation amongst all 48 political parties contesting the national elections.
Read more »
Election 2019 unpacked: How national and provincial elections workWhat level of significance do national and provincial governments have when it comes to the inner-workings of the South African electoral system?
Read more »