Calls to postpone presidential election as Storm Leonardo lashes Portugal and Spain

Sam Jones

in Madrid

Heavy rains and strong winds continued to batter parts of Spain and Portugal on Friday, causing at least one death, forcing the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and prompting calls to postpone the second-round of Portugal’s presidential election.

Storm Leonardo, which has lashed the Iberian peninsula this week, has led the Portuguese government to extend the current state of calamity in 69 municipalities until the middle of February.

The storm has killed one man in Portugal, leaving a young girl missing in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía. It is the latest in a series of deadly storms to have hit Portugal and Spain in recent weeks, killing several people.

The damage and uncertainty brought by the storm has given rise to calls to postpone Sunday’s second round of the presidential election in Portugal.

André Ventura, the leader of the far-right Chega party, said the vote should be delayed by a week as the poll was “a matter of equality among all Portuguese”.

But the national electoral authority said the vote would go ahead as scheduled.

“A state of emergency, weather alerts or overall unfavourable situations are not in themselves a sufficient reason to postpone voting in a town or region,” it said.

Authorities in Andalucía, where more than 7,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, evacuated residential areas near the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba overnight because the dramatic rise in water levels.

About 1,500 residents have been ordered to leave their homes in Grazalema, a mountain village popular with hikers, as water seeped through the walls of houses and cascaded along steep cobbled streets.

Andalucía’s regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, told Cadena Ser radio that aquifers in the Grazalema mountains were full and could provoke landslides owing to pent-up pressure. “This could cause large holes or ditches. If this happens under a house or street, the result could be dramatic,” Moreno said.

He added geologists were assessing the situation in Grazalema to determine when residents would be able to return to their homes.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was due to visit the hardest-hit areas of Andalucía later on Friday.

Scientists say human-driven climate breakdown is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as the floods and heatwaves that have struck both countries in recent years.