Voters will take to the polls on April 28 in a snap election which was triggered by a failure to reach an agreement over the 2019 Budget. But there are many other economic issues to deal with too. Despite Spain being one of the biggest economies in Europe, there is high employment, increasing debt and more than 10 million people living under the poverty threshold.
The country also has the third-highest life expectancy, after Japan and Switzerland.
This has resulted in the state paying 9.7 million pensions a year.
But it collects less than what it takes to cover this expense.
This has resulted in a debt building for several years to more than a trillion euros.
Who is standing in the Spanish elections?
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is feeling the heat from the other parties who are hoping to oust him.
These include the centre-right People’s party, centrist Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox.
But Mr Sanchez’s party the PSOE, along with other left wing groups Podemos and the Catalan and Basque separatists, say nationalist success will result in an end of autonomy.
Who is leading in the polls?
Mr Sanchez’s party are in the lead at the moment, a GAD3 poll for the ABC newspaper showed on Wednesday.
But it is still short of a parliamentary majority, even with backing from Podemos.
The party are on course between 136 and 139 seats, but this is short of a majority in the 350-seat parliament, meaning there is no clear winner at the moment.
Meanwhile, the EU is hoping for a “stable” majority in the election after almost five years of chaos.
One high ranking official said to El Pais: “Brussels is hoping for a government with a stable parliamentary majority that will be able to push the budget through and put an end to all the wavering that has been the rule since 2015.
“The economy’s performance has been the best news out of Spain in recent years, but Spanish politics cannot continue to stumble along.”