Oct
21
On Sunday, around 4.5 million people are expected to cast their ballots in the regional polls, which are considered a litmus test for the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
In Basque Country in northern Spain, surveys indicate that about 1.8 million voters are set to oust Socialist leader Patxi Lopez from the 75-seat legislature and bring separatist Basque Nationalist Party to power.
The prosperous Basque region, which is home to 2.2 million people, has been racked by decades of separatist violence.
For 40 years, the Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna) waged a bloody campaign for independence of the seven regions in northern Spain and southwest France that Basque separatists claim as their own.
However, in January 2011, ETA declared a permanent and ‘internationally verifiable’ ceasefire.
The northwestern region of Galicia, which is the homeland of Rajoy, is also to hold municipal elections.
Polls indicate that Rajoy’s ruling Popular Party faces a tight race as it is ahead of Spain’s other main party, the Socialists, by a narrow margin.
The vote in Galicia is seen as a referendum on the premier’s spending cuts and tax hikes that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.
Observers say Rajoy will declare the details of his national bailout plan soon after the elections.
The government has already cut public services and social benefits and raised taxes, which have affected people’s livelihoods.
Public protests have grown in Spain over speculation that the government will seek a Greek-style European bailout to keep its borrowing costs in check.
Over the past few months, anti-austerity demonstrations have turned violent in Spanish cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as well as in rural mining locations in the north.
Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008.
ASH/HSN/MA
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