Iran Press/Europe: Voting began in Spain on Sunday in the country’s third general election in four years and one of the tightest contests in decades.
Polls opened at 9am and voters have until 8pm to make their choice. In the voting, about 37 millioms Spaniards vote for 208 senators and 350 MPs in the House of representative, Euronews reported.
In February, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez called for a snap election on April 28, after his fragile minority government suffered a major defeat in Parliament and collapsed when opposition lawmakers banded together with Sánchez’s erstwhile Catalan allies to vote down his national budget.
Supporters of the far-right party Vox at a rally in Granada. The party is hoping to win its first seats in Parliament.
No single party is expected to gain a majority, which means five parties from across the political spectrum have a real chance of sharing power in the next government.
For once, this election is not being dominated by Spain's unemployment problem but by Catalonia and the rise of the far right.
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For now, they don't even have a seat in the national parliament, but in a few days, they could be part of the next government.
Left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says he's scared that the right wing, led by Pablo Casados's People's party, will be able to form a winning coalition with the Vox party.
If it comes together such a coalition would be part of a broader far-right movement that has already entered government in some European countries, notably Italy.
However, the latest polls suggest that each of the five main parties in Spain is likely to win at least 10 percent of the votes on Sunday. The Socialists are expected to take home the biggest share, but fall short of the 176 seats required to form a majority government.
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