SAN SEBASTIAN: Spain’s Basque country and Galicia went to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that may help unblock the long-lasting national political paralysis.

The country is stuck in limbo, run by a government without full powers following two inconclusive elections which the conservative Popular Party (PP) won without an absolute majority, and which have seen parties unable to reach any coalition deal.

As such, mainstream parties are watching the regional elections closely to see if they lose ground to upstarts or nationalist groupings, and none more so than the Socialist party (PSOE), which surveys predicted would fare badly.

A poor showing — following bad results in December’s general election and again in a June repeat vote — may prompt the party’s dissenting “barons”, or regional presidents, to push party leader Pedro Sanchez out.

“If we don’t have a good score, they will use that to try to overthrow Pedro Sanchez,” said a source close to the Socialist leader, who wished to remain anonymous.

Parliament has until Oct 31 to produce a government or face an unprecedented third general election.

Antonio Barroso, an analyst with political consultancy Teneo Intelligence, said the reaction in the PSOE in the event of poor results “will provide a signpost of whether there could be an internal revolt, possibly to get rid of Sanchez and change the party’s position ahead of the Oct 31 deadline.”

Published in Dawn September 26th, 2016