Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s. Photo: AFP
Corruption investigations into family and former top political allies have eroded Sanchez's popularity at home even as clashes with US President Donald Trump and Israel increase his standing abroad.
Regions wield wide-ranging powers in areas including health, education and housing in Spain's decentralised political system, making the election in the country's most populous region especially significant.
Andalusia -- a sun-soaked tourist magnet famed for its Mediterranean beach resorts and historic cities such as Seville, Granada and Cordoba -- was governed by the Socialists for almost 40 years.
But polling suggests the main conservative Popular Party (PP), which came to power in the southern region in 2019, will again defeat the Socialists in their historic heartland.
Whether Andalusia's PP leader Juanma Moreno would achieve another majority in the 109-seat parliament was unclear.
Far-right party Vox could therefore become a kingmaker, repeating a pattern seen in recent regional elections in Extremadura, Aragon and Castile and Leon.
After resounding defeats for the left in those regions, another drubbing in Andalusia would be particularly painful for Sanchez, whose candidate is his former deputy and ex-finance minister Maria Jesus Montero.
- 'Huge weight' -
The turnout at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) was 37.2 percent, three percentage points up on the last election in 2022, when the Socialists slumped to their worst-ever result in Andalusia.
Amid Socialist fears that a low turnout will harm their chances in regional polls that tend to mobilise fewer voters, Montero urged Andalusians to flock to the polling stations before their closure at 8:00 pm.
"We are always concerned about the participation in elections being adequate," she told reporters after casting her ballot in Seville.
Moreno alluded to the national repercussions of the vote in Andalusia, home to almost nine million people -- roughly 18 percent of Spain's population.
"What happens in Andalusia clearly determines other things as well," Moreno told journalists after voting in the coastal city of Malaga, describing his region as "a highly unique land with huge weight".
The PP has agreed coalition governments with Vox in Extremadura and Aragon and not ruled out cooperation at the national level if the next general election, expected in 2027, yields inconclusive results.
That has set it apart from other mainstream European conservative parties that insist on a "sanitary cordon" against the far right.
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