There is a match. Andorrans are eager to vote. the test? Early voting – the citizens of this country can take their ballot to the Batllia (courts) from the first day of the campaign – has been a record. More than 9,000 citizens of this country have already cast their vote before the polls open. In other words, one in three Andorrans out of the 30,000 with the right to vote have made their electoral bet. They are 30% of the voters called to these elections. Two thousand more ballots (here one vote can change everything) than four years ago. This rush to cast the vote or preventive maneuver (perhaps the designated day is something else) to ensure participation in this 2023 electoral date is interpreted, from the political world, as an omen of high participation in the elections from today sunday Sources from the majority of the six parties that choose to govern the principality for the next four years agreed yesterday on the same bet: “Participation will exceed the 68.3% of the elections four years ago”.
Another explanation for this advanced vote is the coincidence of the elections with the beginning of the Easter holidays. Many of these voters who have already voted, and it has nothing to do, of course, with the tourism sector, would already be out of the country. And a third hypothesis, no less likely, is that the irruption in this campaign of new political formations, such as Concordia or Andorra Endavant, would have mobilized an electorate that four years ago did not show any kind of interest or felt attracted to no political force at the time.
Although, to be honest, it must be said that this supposed desire to participate, confirmed in figures by the advanced vote, was not breathed yesterday in the streets of a country whose place in Europe is at stake in these elections
It was a rather gray Saturday. Of clouds and clear. And the majority of Andorrans – they do not hide this – what they now want is more storms than sunshine. We are at the gates of Holy Week, and the announced snowfalls at high altitudes are the best gift that a country dedicated to tourism and with the ski slopes diminished, as everywhere in the Pyrenees, can expect today due to the unusual temperatures of the last few weeks .
If these announced new precipitations fall in the form of snow, Andorra will close another ski season on a note. And that’s benefits.
Another peculiarity of this country, when there are elections, is that the electoral posters are conspicuous by their absence. They can only be exhibited at designated points. They are distributed by lottery. Therefore, it would not be strange for the most clueless visitor, oblivious to the political battles, to enjoy what Andorra has to offer this weekend without knowing that its citizens have a momentous date with the ballot boxes today, Sunday.
Andorra is also not a country of electoral shenanigans. There is no polling at the ballot box, nor surveys – they are counted – during the campaign to find out the intention to vote. Since they all know each other, intuition works more here. And in this appointment – four years ago the bet in favor of the Democrats was clearer – there is a lot of uncertainty.
The current head of government, Xavier Espot, starts as favorite for re-election. But if he wins, he could once again need the complicity of the Liberals, with Josep Maria Cabanes at the helm, to re-edit the coalition of the last four years.
This instinct, pending polls, in a small country where much more is controlled than what is said, foreshadows that the “surprise” of these elections will be Concordia, formed by very young people and which presents itself as an “alternative †in Andorran politics throughout his life. Cerni Escalé, its leader, could win the vote of unempathetic generations with a model they have seen since childhood and consider to be from the past.
And this breath of fresh air comes when the current situation would not be the most appropriate for experiments. After these elections, Andorra will enter a phase of high politics, which transcends domestic problems. The principality must decide in the immediate future what it wants to be within the European family.
