The main post office in Valence is always full in mid-July. “I waited an hour to send a package. Never seen “, complains Amelia Sanfeliu, a 66-year-old retiree with a tanned complexion, dressed in a large dress to withstand the 35 ° C in the shade and the stifling humidity of the Mediterranean Spanish city. At his side, dozens of people, in flip-flops and sunglasses, are waiting their turn, with the necessary documents to vote in the legislative elections on Sunday July 23. “It’s like that from morning to night”sighs an employee at the counter.
Never before has Spain held legislative elections in the middle of July, between two heat waves and when many of its inhabitants are on vacation. But by dissolving the Chambers the day after the rout of his party in the local elections of May 28, the President of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sanchez, unblocked the legal countdown which sets a deadline of fifty-four days, no more. no less, to call elections to Parliament and the Senate. Result: more than 2.6 million Spaniards registered to vote by post in Sunday’s ballot, while they were less than a million in the 2019 elections. Overwhelmed, all over the kingdom, the offices of Correos, the Spanish post, had to extend their opening hours until 10 p.m. and open on Saturday July 15 and Sunday July 16, in order to cope with the surge of voters.
“I may be at the beach on the 23rd, so I preferred to take the lead”, explains Victor, a 40-year-old English teacher, who is voting by mail for the first time. “These elections are very tight and every vote counts. I cannot sit idly by in the face of the risk that Vox [extrême droite] enters the government: they are xenophobes, homophobes and machos”, he adds. He voted for the Sumar alternative left movement, which brings together around fifteen parties to the left of the Socialist Party (PSOE) in the elections to Parliament and for the PSOE in the Senate. ” Anyway, if they want to govern, they will have to do it together. »
Battle between two blocks
The two-party system, which prevailed in Spain for a long time before exploding in 2014 with the arrival of new parties, has given way to a battle between two blocs. On the one hand, the political model in power since 2019: a coalition between the Socialist Party and the radical left, supported by the Catalan separatists. On the other, a possible government of the Popular Party (PP, right) allied with Vox, like those which became widespread after the local elections in dozens of municipalities and several regions of Spain. Including the community of Valencia.
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