Election Day - 28 April 2019

It’s Election Day today. As far as I can make out there are two socialist parties ( PSOE - Spanish Socialist Working Party and Podemos- “We Can”) and two right of centre parties, the Citizens party (leader Antonio Rivera) and the PP ( People’s Party leader Pablo Casado). There is an extreme right party called the Vox party (leader Santiago Abascal)  who support bullfighting, building a wall and a bunch of other stuff. There is a concern that they might get between 10-15% of the seats on offer which might make them kingmakers in any future coalition. The current PM, Pedro Sanchez, is PSOE and, unusually,  is an aetheist so he wasn’t sworn in using a bible. Pablo Inglesias founded Podemos as a left wing anti-corruption party and doesn’t wear suits on TV debates. He is under a bit of pressure for buying a 600k house. 

At the time of writing it seems the socialists should be able to cobble together a coalition. The Vox party has got 12% of the vote. Spain was the last bastion of anti so called “Populist” far right parties given their history with Franco up to 1975 but it seems even they are not immune. 

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