Would it be possible to extend the voting period until 10 p.m., and no longer 8 p.m., as planned, this Sunday, July 23? This insistent request from Yolanda Diaz, outgoing Spanish Labor Minister and leader of the Sumar (“Add” left of the left) party, was made on the grounds that the new wave of extreme heat risks demobilizing part of the electorate on the occasion of these legislative elections.
The electoral commission, straddling traditions and desiring that the results do not occur in the middle of the night, opposed it. But she nevertheless authorized a number of requests, especially in Andalusia, where, these days, the thermometer marks up to 42°, even 44°.
Constituencies everywhere stocked hundreds of bottles of mineral water for staff and volunteers; air conditioning units are urgently installed to mitigate the effects of the heat; around Almeria, forty-eight electoral offices have been moved to air-conditioned spaces…
A few days before a crucial vote that will renew the mandate of the socialist Pedro Sanchez or, if we are to believe the polls, will hand the country over to Alberto Nunez Feijoo (People’s Party, PP), global warming is at the heart of the campaign.
Since the start of the week, the country has experienced its third wave of extreme heat over almost the entire territory, with unprecedented daytime records (45.4°C in Figueras, unheard of in Catalonia) and suffocating tropical nights (25°C minimum in twenty-five meteorological stations).
It is very difficult to determine which formation will be favored by these hot air masses and the “calima”, this unpleasant dust coming from the Sahara. Countless citizens of all persuasions flee the overheated cities to take refuge by the sea or in the mountains. In any case, the conservative candidate Alberto Nunez Feijoo holds his socialist rival responsible for the choice of this “aberrant date”.
“This July 23, a bridge in four regions, will also correspond to a peak of heat which will not push to move to the polls”, noted Alberto Nunez Feijoo, denouncing a supposed “Machiavellian strategy” of Sanchez.
A choice that would also be, according to the conservatives, criminal given the “ravaging” of extreme temperatures on health, and when it is necessary for most voters to travel to go to the polls. Since July 10, 360 deaths among the oldest population have been linked, directly or indirectly, to the heat wave, according to Carlos III University.
Still according to the Conservatives, the current head of government would have given instructions to slow down postal voting – which recorded a record demand from two million voters. Due to the summer period and the intense heat wave, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards have indeed resorted to voting via Correos (La Poste) in anticipation of their trips away from their places of residence.
The most paradoxical thing about the situation is that the formation that most vehemently rails against the alleged pre-election manipulation of Pedro Sanchez does not believe in global warming. Vox (populist conservative), the third parliamentary force called to govern in coalition with the moderate right if the two parties obtain more than 176 deputies, advocates militant negationism.
A survey by the 40dB polling institute indicates that only 34% of Vox voters attribute these increasingly intense and harmful heat waves to climate change. The formation of Santiago Abascal, who also wants to increase the irrigated areas of intensive agriculture, also plans to dissolve “parallel state structures”, including Aemet, the Spanish Meteorological Agency.
Whatever the results at the end of the vote, this Sunday, we can bet that the loser or losers will put their failure in part on the account of the extreme heat wave.
