Spain’s opposition conservative party faces the prospect of defeat in the home region of its leader, which it has ruled for most of the past 40 years, when voters in Galicia go to the polls on Sunday.
The People’s Party (PP) won an absolute majority four years ago under then-regional president Alberto Nuñez Feijó, who now heads the national party, but polls show that the party’s strength has declined and it is gaining ground with the Socialist Party. This could open the door to coalitions with political parties. Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).
However, in a close race, the kingmaker may turn out to be Ourense mayor Gonzalo Pérez Jacomé. He gained attention by dressing up as the Power Rangers and Superman in a single-issue campaign demanding that local governments “give it back.” A historical debt to the town.”
Galicia, in northwestern Spain, is one of Spain’s poorest regions and one of its most conservative. The birthplace of Francisco Franco and home to many of Spain’s most prominent right-wing politicians, including Franco’s right-hand man Manuel Fraga and former prime minister Mariano Rajoy, Feijo’s own position could be weakened. There is. There is unrest within his party over his comments in support of amnesty for Catalonia’s independence leader.
BNG, led by Anna Ponton, is expected to emerge from a narrow margin and win up to 30 seats. Language is a key issue for Ponton, and she is campaigning to replace the bilingual education system with something closer to the Catalan model, with most classes taught in Gallego and Spanish only in token numbers.
BNG appears to be attracting votes from the PP and disgruntled Socialist Party supporters, who may see the nationalists as a means to end the PP’s long-term hegemony.
According to the poll, 46% of voters support a coalition government, while only 29% want the PP to rule alone. Even fewer people supported a coalition between the PP and the far-right Vox party, at 7.5%.
If Ponton wins, she will become Galicia’s first female and first nationalist leader.
Galicia is often described as a country of women, but this is because generations of poverty have forced men to either emigrate or spend most of the year working in Scandinavian factories, returning home only for holidays. Because I was forced to. It is difficult to judge the outcome of the election in Galicia, where expats from Argentina, Brazil and Cuba are expected to account for almost 20% of the vote.
The PP attacked Ponton by unconvincingly comparing the BNG to the defunct Basque terrorist group Eta, but over the weekend Feijo was linked to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and illegal terrorist activities in 2017. That campaign has been overshadowed by revelations that he supports conditional pardons for others who have committed crimes. For independence.
The PP has fiercely opposed the government’s amnesty proposal, and Feijo has spent the week retracting his comments.