MADRID (Reuters) – The conservative front-runner in this month’s Spanish election pledged on Thursday to address the climate challenges facing the country, as he marked the official start of his campaign with a rally in his home village.
Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the opposition People’s Party (PP) said politicians needed to set aside “frivolities” and address subjects such as water supply amid increasingly frequent droughts and an exodus from Spain’s rural areas.
In a manifesto published on Monday, the PP said it would invest in water infrastructure including reservoirs and canals, without providing details.
“Wherever I end up after (the) July 23 (election), I will keep my feet on the ground… I will continue to have modesty and humility as guiding beacons in my political actions,” Feijoo told a small crowd in Os Peares in Galicia, the northwestern region where he previously served as president.
Spain is suffering a long-term drought, registering the driest start to a year since records began in the first four months of 2023.
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of mainly young people are moving from rural to urban areas in search of work, and the government has estimated that half of Spain’s villages are at risk of being abandoned in the next few decades.
Opinion polls tip Feijoo’s PP to win most seats in the election, ahead of the governing Socialists (PSOE) of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, though the gap between the two parties is narrowing.
Sanchez will hold a rally in Madrid on Thursday, and Feijoo a second event in Barcelona later.
The far-right Vox party and far-left Sumar platform, both potential kingmakers in a fragmented political landscape, will also hold rallies on Thursday, in Almeria and A Coruna respectively.
Sanchez called the snap election after his coalition government performed poorly in local elections in May.
According to a tracking poll by GAD3 for ABC, the PP is on course to win 152 seats versus 109 for the Socialists.
That would leave Feijoo needing to form a coalition with the anti-Muslim, anti-feminist Vox to achieve a 176-seat majority in parliament, the first time a far-right party would play a role in government since Spain’s return to democracy in the mid-1970s.
Vox is projected to win 31 seats and the far-left Sumar platform led by Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz – a potential PSOE ally – 28 seats, according to GAD3.
(Reporting by Charlie Devereux; editing by Aislinn Laing and John Stonestreet)
