By Athena Papakosta

This Sunday in Spain the political thermometer will hit red. The country is headed for early parliamentary elections and these are their protagonists.

Pedro Sanchez

The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, is running for re-election. He is the head of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). He came to power in June 2018 when he became the first to oust a sitting prime minister after a motion of impeachment filed against him. Since January 2020 he has governed Spain with the radical left of Podemos. It is the first coalition government since the late 70s when democracy was restored in Spain.

His tenure was marked by the coronavirus pandemic and the recession that the Spanish economy had entered. And when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the economic situation in the country worsened further.

Today he has all the polls against him.

Municipal and regional elections have preceded, in which Sanchez’s party and its governing partner, Podemos, suffered a heavy defeat. Now, 51-year-old Sanchez plays it all, sweeping the country with campaign rallies and giving numerous television interviews.

They call him “beautiful”. He knows excellent English – unlike his predecessors – and stands out for his progressive moves that brought him to a ministry where women outnumber men. With his legislative initiative for the “Law for Democratic Memory” he gave dignity and justice to the victims of Franco, while he supported menstruation leave and the right to abortion for young women over the age of 16, abolishing the condition of parental consent for minors.

He is married and has two daughters.

Alberto Nunez Feijo

He looks a lot like a banker but he’s not. He keeps a low tone and as he explains “what is boring for some, for the majority of citizens are qualities that a prime minister should have”.

He has been the head of the People’s Party (PP) since April 2022 while, in the past, he was a civil servant who became a politician in Galicia, in the north-west of Spain – where he comes from – winning four consecutive terms.

Ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, Alberto Núñez Feijo finishes first in the polls but without independence.

Shortly before the polls, he receives criticism for his absence from the televised debate in which his political rivals Sanchez, Abascal and Diaz participated, while analysts conclude that he will form a coalition government with the head of the far-right VOX.

At the same time, his critics are bringing back to the fore pictures of Feijo with the drug dealer Marcial Dorado, with the head of the People’s Party replying that Google did not exist then and that he did not know, with Sanchez replying that he was lying.

Together with his partner they have a child.

Santiago Abascal

Founder and head of the VOX party since 2014, Santiago Abascal, at 47 still likes to introduce himself as an anti-systemic with a mission to save the soul of Spain.

As in Spain, most parties embrace the restoration of democracy in the country, he defends the Franco regime. As other parties oppose gender-based violence, he and his own party oppose legislation against it and, of course, against feminism. As his country turns its back on bullfighting, he and his party defend it.

He has friends in Europe. In Brussels, no. It maintains strong ties with the party of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, Fidesz, with Marine Le Pen’s “National Alarm” and with the “Brothers of Italy” party of the current Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who is even featured in a pre-election video by VOX reaffirming the “strong friendship” that connects them.

In 2019, VOX emerged as Spain’s third parliamentary force with a percentage of 15.1%. Today, he seeks a governmental collaboration with the People’s Party. However, in order to achieve this most important victory in its party history, VOX will have to cut the electoral thread for the third time on Sunday.

Santiago Abascal has been married twice and has four children.

Yolanda Diaz

Yolanda Díaz is the only female candidate and aspires to become Spain’s first female prime minister.

He is 52 years old and comes from a small town in Galicia, Fene.

He leads a coalition of 15 parties and organizations of the Left under the name Sumar, under whose umbrella Podemos, from which Díaz “descends” party-wise, has entered.

Today she is deputy prime minister of Spain and the country’s minister of labor. She is one of the most popular politicians in Spain. She is the one who banned layoffs during the pandemic and the one who negotiated and won an increase in the minimum wage.

In the run-up to the election, he focuses on taxing the rich, but also on a bold idea which concerns a plan with the aim of granting, on the part of the state, the sum of 20,000 euros to 18-year-olds for studies or the creation of a business. The purpose is to guarantee equal opportunities, regardless of the economic and family background of each young person. The plan costs 10 billion euros which will be raised from the taxation of high incomes.

Its aim is to finish in third place on Sunday so that Pedro Sanchez can form a new coalition government with Sumar’s governing partner. So far the polls have her trailing Santiago Abascal.

Diaz is married with one child