Spain election: Polls open in contest marked by far-right resurgence

Image copyrightReutersImage caption

Campaigning has been dominated by issues other than the economy

Polls have opened across Spain for the country's third general election in four years.

The election is marked by the rise of the far right movement Vox, which opposes multiculturalism and has threatened to end self rule for regions like Catalonia.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has presented himself as a bulwark against the advance of the hard right.

Polls suggest his party will lead the vote but no single group will win an overall majority.

The final opinion poll in El Pais newspaper last Monday put the Socialists (PSOE) at about 30%, the conservative People's Party (PP) at around 20%, the centre-right Ciudadanos and left-leaning Podemos both near 14% and the far right Vox party at about 11%.

However, the poll also showed that up to four in 10 voters had yet to make up their minds.

Image copyrightAFP / Getty ImagesImage caption Leading players: Pedro Sánchez (PSOE), Pablo Casado (PP), Albert Rivera (Ciudadanos), Pablo Iglesias (Podemos), Santiago Abascal (Vox)

Voting began at 09:00 (07:00 GMT) and will end at 20:00 on the mainland.

Emotive issues dominated a highly polarised election campaign, particularly the future of Catalonia.

The semi-autonomous region held an independence referendum in October 2017 and declared its independence from Spain weeks later.

A dozen of its leaders have since gone on trial in Madrid, facing charges including rebellion and sedition.

• Socialists battle to stop right-wing surge

• Catalan crisis in 300 words

• Spain country profile

Analysts say support for Vox has been boosted by widespread anger at the independence drive. The party fervently opposes any concessions to the secessionists.

Women's rights have also been a key campaigning topic. Gender-based violence has provoked debate and street protests across Spain for years and more politicians than ever are courting women's votes.

Vox, however, has spoken out against what it calls “radical feminism” that it claims “criminalises” men.

Where parties stand on key issues IMMIGRATION

ECONOMY

EQUALITY

CATALONIA

IMMIGRATIONECONOMYEQUALITYCATALONIA

IMMIGRATION

Pablo CasadoPartido Popular, PP

- Responsible immigration policies. Immigration should be legal, orderly and linked to work contracts and the wish to integrate and respect the customs of the nation. - Statute of temporary protection for Venezuelans, granting them temporary residency, freedom of movement and work permits. - Special plan to combat illegal immigration. - Support the work of social services in the care given to refugees who have fled dictatorships, wars or religious persecution. - Integration of legal migrants and advance policies which guarantee that second generations feel like full Spanish citizens. - Enable the recruitment of migrants in their own country.

Pedro SánchezPartido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE

- Access to Spanish citizenship by residency must be seen as a result of a process of integration of foreigners in Spain. - Prioritise countries in America and Africa for closer co-operation - Put in place a “state pact for safe, orderly and regular immigration”. - Promote the common European asylum and immigration policy. - Promote full integration and equal opportunities for so-called second generations, paying special attention to education. - Reinforce a fair border policy.

Pablo IglesiasUnidas Podemos

- Establish legal and safe entry routes into Spain and guarantee the civil rights of migrants. - Make the process of family reunification, humanitarian visas and new visa programmes more flexible, such as job searches. - Reinforce the Maritime Rescue Service, which will remain as a public and civil service and whose sole function will be the safeguarding of life at sea. - Shut detention centres for foreigners (CIE). - Build a country without racism. - Promote a new asylum law that includes those who have to flee their homes because of environmental issues. - Guarantee that unaccompanied foreign minors receive treatment according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Albert RiveraCiudadanos

- Set up a “points-based” immigration system to attract the best foreign talent. - Pursue mafia organisations that profit at the expense of the lives and safety of migrants. - Protect the officers of the state security forces that monitor our borders. - Increase resources for the state security forces dealing with irregular migration, reinforcing effective and non-aggressive action.

Santiago AbascalVox

- Deport illegal migrants to their countries of origin. - Deport migrants who are legally in Spanish territory but who have committed minor offences or serious crimes. - Strengthen our borders. Build an insurmountable wall in Ceuta and Melilla (Spanish cities on the African continent bordering Morocco). - End the attraction: any migrant who enters Spain illegally will not be allowed to legalise their situation, ever. - Eliminate the “arraigo” process that allows illegal migrants to stay in Spain under exceptional circumstances. - Raise the levels of language ability, tax contributions and integration as requirements for citizenship.

ECONOMY

Pablo CasadoPartido Popular, PP

- Approve a reduced fee for self-employed workers whose income does not exceed the minimum wage. - Encourage active aging and the voluntary extension of working life beyond the statutory retirement age. - Make the process of setting up companies easier. - Establish mechanisms that penalise unjustified temporary contracts. - Autonomous communities where PP is in power will reduce income tax for people under 35 and families with at least one child. - Eliminate inheritance tax for transactions between parents and children, and their descendants. - Pensions must maintain their purchasing power.

Pedro SánchezPartido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE

- Create ways of boosting co-responsibility and work-life balance. - Strengthen the progressivity of the tax system, increasing the contribution of large companies and taxpayers with higher incomes and larger assets. - Gradually increase the minimum wage. - Simplify and reorder the offer of employment contracts to three types: indefinite, temporary and training. - Modify the system for self-employed workers so that they can contribute according to their real income.

Pablo IglesiasUnidas Podemos

- 34-hour working week. - Work towards internet connection as a basic right, with free access. - Reach a minimum wage of €1,200 (US $1,350). - Strengthen anti-trust laws. - Penalise companies that make excessive use of temporary contracts. - Fight against tax havens. - Special unemployment protection for young people. - Restore rights for those in most vulnerable jobs, especially in sectors dominated by women.

Albert RiveraCiudadanos

- Guaranteed salary supplement to help workers in poverty and fight the abuse of the temporary contracts. - Self-employed workers whose real incomes are below the minimum annual salary will not pay contributions. - Promote a favourable legal framework for innovative companies in their initial stages. - Guarantee that suppliers are paid within a maximum of 30 days in public contracts or 60 days in other cases. - Eliminate temporary contracts: all contracts will be indefinite. - No-one will ever have to renounce an inheritance because they cannot pay inheritance tax.

Santiago AbascalVox

-10% reduction of company contributions for new permanent contracts for Spanish workers. - Strong support for large families and the birth rate in general. - Support for self-employed workers. Zero contributions if income does not reach the minimum wage. 100% reduction in contributions if a self-employed worker is out of work. - Support for the unemployed aged over 50 and for the long-term unemployed. - Drastic reduction of income tax. - Elimination of property tax and inheritance tax.

EQUALITY

Pablo CasadoPartido Popular, PP

- Local offices for Assistance for Pregnant Women so that no woman stops being a mother because of her economic, social or family circumstances. - Improve social protection and support for pregnant young women and young families, temporarily adapting, if necessary, their schooling, so that motherhood does not pose an obstacle. - Reform the penal code to extend the option of permanent remand to cases of murder in which some gender violence is suspected. - Training in equality and the fight against gender violence to be given to all professionals who might come across the issue in their career. - Plan to close the wage gap in Spain. - Encourage more women into the labour market to reach levels similar to the European average.

Pedro SánchezPartido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE

- End surrogacy (which is currently illegal in Spain). - Reform of the criminal code to ensure that the lack of explicit consent of the victim is key in sexual crimes. If a woman does not say yes, it means no. - Prohibit segregated education in schools supported by public funds. - In schools, promote the prevention of gender violence and respect for sexual diversity. - Reform gender identity law, eliminating the need for medical diagnoses and making it easier for under 16s to change name and sex records. - Allow non-transferable parental leave for both parents. - Implement urgent measures to ensure equal treatment and employment opportunities for women and men.

Pablo IglesiasUnidas Podemos

- Guarantee immediate housing alternatives for women and their children who suffer domestic violence. - Introduce feminism classes. - Equal and non-transferable paternity and maternity leave. - Offer help with assisted reproduction and facilitate access to the latest contraceptive methods, emergency contraception and voluntary terminations for all women. - Legal protection of trans people and the right to self-determination of gender identity and expression. - Establish equality in local authorities. - Launch a plan to fight domestic violence, with an annual allocation of €600m ($675m).

Albert RiveraCiudadanos

- End male-preference in the royal line of succession. - Protect marriage between LGTBI people and include the right to non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. - Approve a surrogacy law so that women who cannot conceive and LGTBI families can fulfill their dream of forming a family. - Expand maternity and paternity leave to up to 16 weeks for each parent. - Combat intolerance and hate speech, including on social networks. - Promote a greater presence of women in visible positions of responsibility, guaranteeing an equality balance in public office.

Santiago AbascalVox

- Protection of life from conception to natural death. - Elimination of quotas (by sex or for any other reason) in electoral lists. - Repeal gender violence law and any rule that discriminates against a person's sex. Instead, enact a law of intra-family violence that protects the elderly, men, women and children alike. Suppression of subsidised “radical feminist” organisations, effective prosecution of false allegations. - Extension of maternity leave to 180 days that would be extended to one year in the case of children with disabilities.

CATALONIA

Pablo CasadoPartido Popular, PP

- In accordance with article 155 of the Spanish constitution (which allows direct rule to be imposed on an autonomous region) apply, for as long as it is inexcusable, as many measures as necessary. - Reform the penal code to re-criminalise the call for an illegal referendum and reform the law of pardon to prohibit it for crimes of rebellion and sedition. - Promote the national holiday of 12 October across the whole of Spanish society and promote activities around it in all schools. - Impose sanctions on authorities that refuse to fly the national flag on all official buildings or ensure the portrait of the Head of State is present at plenary sessions of municipal councils. - Approve a moratorium that would paralyse the transfer of new powers to autonomous communities.

Pedro SánchezPartido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE

- Commit to continue building a Spain of autonomies. Strengthen the regional model as a fundamental instrument for recognising the uniqueness and political options of each autonomous community.

Pablo IglesiasUnidas Podemos

- Reach a democratic solution for the Catalan conflict. Hold a referendum, in which Podemos will defend a new role for Catalonia in Spain. - Reform the regional financing system, in dialogue with all autonomous communities.

Albert RiveraCiudadanos

- Activate Article 155 emergency powers (which allows direct rule to be imposed on an autonomous region) until the constitution in Catalonia can be restored. - Improve measures to protect Spaniards against coups in the 21st century. - Update the crime of sedition and rebellion in the penal code. - Launch classes on the Spanish constitution throughout Spain, and put an end to nationalist indoctrination in schools.

Santiago AbascalVox

- Suspend Catalan autonomy until the unmitigated defeat of the coup. - Make illegal any party, association or NGO that pursues the destruction of the nation and its sovereignty. - Legal protection for the symbols of the nation, especially the flag, the anthem and the crown. Increase sentences for offences against Spain and its symbols or emblems. - Intensify diplomatic actions for the return of Gibraltar. - Comprehensive programme to protect national identity and raise awareness of Spain's contribution to civilisation and universal history, with special attention to the deeds and exploits of our national heroes.

Go back