The general elections of Spain kicked off on Sunday.
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Spain has been dominated for more than three decades by the conservative Popular Party and the main opposition Socialists, who have alternated running the government.
“If there is no majority and many parties have a say, that could be a bit of a mess”, said Josefa Robledillo, 50, a housewife from the Aluche district of Madrid who voted for the PP. “I hope that now that the economy is going a little better, things will stay on track”.
The first leader to appear at the polls was Albert Rivera, leader of the center-right Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, who cast his vote at 10:09 in the Santa Maria de Llobregat college in Barcelona.
The People’s Party (PP) of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won Spain’s general election on Sunday, exit polls showed, although it will have to rely on other parties if it is to govern for another four-year term.
But a more splintered political landscape could now complicate efforts to form a government.
A woman casts her vote for the national elections in Madrid.
“If the current poll predictions are confirmed, then it looks like a Socialist government”, said Federico Santi, a London-based analyst with the Eurasia Group political risk consulting group.
Sky-high unemployment, inequality, corruption and an ever-rising separatist drive in the northeastern region of Catalonia are just some of the issues at stake in a country deeply scarred by a financial crisis.
“They’ve completely overturned the bi-party model that we’ve all known”. “We have to give the new parties a chance”, said grey-haired truck driver Francisco Perez, 53, after voting for Podemos in L’Hospitalet de Lllobregat.
All four parties have been polling around 15 percent, making these elections some of the most unpredictable the country has seen in years.
“Now we have… the old versus the new”, said Salazar.
His administration’s biggest success has been in pulling Spain back from an economic abyss in 2012 and returning the economy to steady growth, but the jobless rate has come down slowly and salaries for people entering the workforce are 30 percent lower than they were in 2008. Unemployment is at 21 percent, the second highest in Europe.
(AP Photo/Alberto Saiz). Pablo Iglesias, center, leader of Podemos party, smiles as he arrives for a closing campaign rally in Valencia, Spain, Friday, Dec. 18, 2015.
The poll suggestsions Podemos has taken votes from the Socialist Party, threatening to end the two-party dominance in Spanish politics.
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But many people casting ballots Sunday were expected to support the business-friendly Ciudadanos party or the far-left Podemos party.
