President Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Popular Party (PP) Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of Sumar Yolanda Diaz and the highest representative of Vox Santiago Abascal are the main candidates in the legislative elections this Sunday in Spain.
Pedro Sanchez
Left for politically dead on several occasions, Pedro Sánchez, 51, has held the presidency of the government since mid-2018, when he ousted the conservative Mariano Rajoy from power through a motion of no confidence in Congress supported by various left-wing parties and Catalan and Basque pro-independence parties.
His government, which the left-wing party Podemos entered as a partner at the beginning of 2020managed to approve a range of laws, to legalize euthanasia, rehabilitate the memory of the victims of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975) or allow free gender change from the age of 16.
Fluent in English, this internationally profiled economist increased Spain’s influence in European Union (EU) affairs.
A politician accustomed to coups, he hopes to deny the polls that predict his defeat in the legislative elections on Sunday, which he called by surprise after the left was defeated in the municipal and regional elections in May.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo
At the head of the Popular Party (PP) for a year, Alberto Núñez Feijóo managed to rebuild the ranks of the right after one of its worst internal crises.
President of his native region of Galicia (northwest) for thirteen years, the 61-year-old PP leader believes that his time has come to lead the country.
A favorite in the polls, his program can be summed up as “repeal sanchismo”, in reference to the Sánchez government, which the right accuses of having crossed red lines.
He gives as an example the pardon of the Catalan independence leaders convicted of the secession attempt in 2017 or some agreements reached to pass laws with Bildu, a Basque independence party seen as the political heir to the armed organization ETA.
A moderate politician, Núñez Feijóo, however, endorsed his party’s alliances to govern with the right of Vox in various regions and municipalities, after the municipal elections in May. A partner with positions that make him uncomfortable, but whose support could be essential to form a government if he wins this Sunday.
Yolanda Diaz
Number three of the Sánchez government, the Minister of Labor, the leader Yolanda Díaz, managed to assemble Sumar, a platform with fifteen formations to the left of the socialists, including Podemos, after overcoming some very rocky negotiations.
Virtually unknown before coming to the ministry in 2020, the affable 52-year-old lawyer quickly rose to prominence in Spain’s polarizing political landscape, becoming the most highly regarded leader, according to polls.
He sponsored partial unemployment plans to avoid layoffs during the pandemic, the revaluation of the minimum wage and a labor market reform to reduce precariousness, with a negotiating spirit that unions and employers recognized.Díaz, who hopes to reissue a government coalition with Sánchez, has as his star measure the proposal for a universal inheritance of 20,000 euros for all 18-year-olds.
Santiago Abascal
If just five years ago he was politically irrelevant, Santiago Abascal dreams he is indispensable to form a government, even with him as vice president, if the conservatives end up needing the votes of his right-wing Vox party.
This 47-year-old former PP militant, with worked muscles and an impeccably shaped beard, revived a marginal right since the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975.
With a preaching of frontal antagonism to Catalan separatism, received with sympathy by the electorate after the failed secession attempt of Catalonia in 2017, Vox, born as a split from the PP in 2013, became the third political force in Congress in 2019.
Beyond defending the unity of Spain, his program denies the existence of gender violence, criticizes “climate fanaticism” and is openly anti-LGBT and anti-abortion.
AFP
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