The far-right Vox party is sparking rumors of wavering support among the Spanish electorate.
The Spanish Vox party, aligned with a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about swings in voting intentions since official polls on Spain's national election ended four days ago.
John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño (Reuters) - The Spanish party Vox, aligned with a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about swings in voting intentions since official polls on Spain's national election ended four days ago.
No single party seems even close to securing a majority, and the chances of a Parliament stuck in deadlock and a second vote are high.
Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in the government will have their last opportunity to court voters at rallies on Friday night, as they conclude a campaign characterized more by appeals to hearts than to wallets.
Traditionally, politics is absent the day before a Spanish election.
Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the final stretch, and one of them concerns which of the rival multi-party left-wing and right-wing blocs will garner the most votes.
The other question is how far Vox, the newcomer challenging the People's Party (PP) and the center-right Ciudadanos party, can advance. Polling institutes have been working to predict this, and media outlets with access to unofficial polls conducted since Monday suggest that Vox may perform better than expected.
The loose alliance of three right-wing parties is led by the PP, a traditional conservative party that has alternated in government with the socialists of outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez since the country's return to democracy in the 1970s.
The PP appears with around 20 percent, Ciudadanos with close to 14 percent, and Vox at around 11 percent, according to the latest compilation of polls by the newspaper El Pais published on Monday.