Spain's Sanchez gambles on snap election after regional ballot rout
ReutersMay 29, 2023
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for a snap election on July 23. The announcement came a day after his Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and its leftist ally Podemos suffered setbacks in local and regional polls.
In Sunday's elections, the right-wing Popular Party received 31.5% of the vote, while Sanchez's PSOE and Podemos won 28.2%, gaining only 3 out of 12 regional governments.
The implementation of social democratic policies is the only feasible route to managing and sustaining the Spanish economy during the current crisis. Through this snap election, the PSOE will return to power with its electoral focus on public healthcare, education, and housing.
Sunday's election was a referendum on Sanchez's disastrous economic policies. Disgruntled Spaniards are angry and paranoid amid a ferocious rise in the cost of living, and have clearly had enough of the current left-wing government. This snap election risks backfiring and seeing power transferred to the People's Party.
There's a 60% chance that the People's Party will win the most seats in the 2023 Spanish Congress of Deputies election, according to the Metaculus prediction community.