There is game. Andorrans want to vote. The proof? Early voting – citizens of that country can take their ballot to the Batllia (courts) from the first day the campaign starts – has been record breaking. More than 9,000 citizens of that country have already cast their vote before the polls open. Or put another way, one in three Andorrans of the 30,000 with the right to vote have made their electoral bid. They are 30% of the voters summoned to these elections. Two thousand more ballots (here one vote can change everything) than four years ago. This rush to cast the vote or prevention maneuver (maybe on the appointed day you are doing something else) to ensure participation in this 2023 electoral event is interpreted, from the political world, as an omen of high participation in today's elections Sunday. Sources from most of the six parties that choose to govern the principality for the next four years agreed yesterday on the same bet: "Participation will exceed that of 68.3% in the elections four years ago."
Another explanation for this early vote is the coincidence of the elections with the start of the Easter holidays. Many of those voters who have already voted, and of course it has nothing to do with the tourism sector, would already be out of the country. And a third hypothesis, no less probable, is that the irruption in this campaign of new political formations, such as Concòrdia or Andorra Endavant, would have mobilized an electorate that four years ago did not show any interest or feel attracted to any of the political forces from that moment.
Although to be honest, it must be said that this supposed desire to participate, verified in figures by early voting, was not breathed yesterday in the streets of a country that is risking its place in Europe in these elections.
It was a rather gray Saturday. Cloudy and clear. And the majority of Andorrans – they do not hide that – what they want now is more storm than sun. We are at the gates of Easter, and the announced snowfall at high altitudes is the best gift that a country dedicated to tourism and with ski slopes reduced, as in the entire Pyrenees, can expect today due to the unusual temperatures of recent weeks. .
If those announced new precipitations fall in the form of snow, Andorra will close another noteworthy ski season. And this is bread for today.
Another peculiarity of this country, when it comes to elections, is that the electoral posters are conspicuous by their absence. They can only be exhibited at designated points. They are distributed by lottery. So no one should be surprised that the most clueless visitor, oblivious to political battles, enjoys Andorra's offer this weekend without finding out that its citizens have a momentous appointment with the polls on Sunday.
Andorra is not a country of electoral pools either. There is no poll at the exit of the ballot box, nor are there surveys – they are counted – during the campaign to find out the intention to vote. Since everyone knows each other, intuition works more here. And in this appointment – four years ago the bet in favor of the Democrates was clearer – there is a lot of uncertainty.
The current head of the Government, Xavier Espot, starts as a favorite for re-election. But if he wins, he could once again need the complicity of the Liberals, led by Josep Maria Cabanes, to rebuild the coalition of the last four years.
That instinct, in the absence of polls, in a small country where much more is controlled than what is said, suggests that the bell of these elections will be given by Concòrdia, a group of very young people who present themselves as an "alternative" to the lifelong Andorran politician. Cerni Escalé, its leader, could drag the vote of generations with little empathy with a model that 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. Andorra will enter a phase of high politics after these elections, which goes beyond domestic problems. The principality has to decide in the immediate future what it wants to be within the European family.
