Clear defeat of the Socialists in regional elections in Spain

Status: 05/29/2023 10:25 a.m

Things could get tight for Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Sánchez in the parliamentary elections at the end of the year. In the regional and local elections, the Conservatives gained a lot of votes – and in many places they need the right-wing populist Vox to govern.

Spain swung to the right in regional and local elections. The conservative People’s Party (PP) made strong gains in votes both in the Autonomous Communities, which correspond to the German federal states, and in many municipalities. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s social democratic party PSOE lost votes.

“It is clear that this is a bad result, not at all what we expected. We got the message,” said PSOE spokeswoman Pilar Alegría on the outcome of the election. After counting more than 97 percent of the ballots for the local elections, the PSOE got 28.18 percent, the PP came up with 31.47 percent.

PP is replacing PSOE in many regions

According to media reports, the PP is likely to replace the PSOE in several regions, including the eastern region of Valencia. In addition, the PSOE is likely to lose the city hall of Seville, the largest city in Andalusia, to the PP, as reported by the Spanish television channel TVE.

At the same time, the PSOE failed to recapture Barcelona’s city hall as it had hoped. According to initial results from the regions, the left-wing Podemos, coalition partner of the PSOE, also suffered a loss of votes.

“Enormous desire for change”

“In Spain there is a tremendous desire for change and the alternative is called PP. This desire for change and this alternative is unstoppable,” said PP spokeswoman Cuca Gamarra. For this, however, the PP needs the right-wing populist Vox in many places, which was also able to gain ground. On election night, PP officials refused to commit to further alliances with Vox, let alone consider doing so after the general election.

The election was considered an important yardstick for the upcoming national parliamentary elections at the end of the year, in which the fate of Sánchez’s minority government will be decided.

Vox boss Santiago Abascal stressed confidently that his party had now become indispensable for the “fight against socialism and against communism”. Vox has finally established itself as a nationwide force, he stressed. The well-known journalist and writer Berna González Harbor summed up the mood on election night. “This is the day Vox becomes a normal party,” she said on TV.

Food and rent in particular should remain affordable.
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Violent dispute within governing coalition

Spain had come through the corona pandemic relatively well under Sánchez’s left-wing minority government. The economic situation is comparatively stable, also because of EU aid worth billions. But unemployment is still high in European comparison. In addition, disputes within the first coalition government since the 1930s repeatedly offered the opposition plenty of ammunition.

Inflation, the consequences of the Ukraine war and several affairs drove Sánchez increasingly into a corner. A new sex criminal law proved to be a fiasco in the “super election year”. It should be the government’s flagship project. But suddenly it opened the cell doors prematurely for dozens of sex criminals – and also led to a heated argument within the governing coalition.

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