Six months before the legislative elections, the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez suffered a very clear setback during the municipal and regional elections, Sunday May 28, in Spain, according to the first official results and media projections. “We are facing a right-wing tide in Spain”declared to the press the head of the outgoing government of Cantabria (northern Spain), Miguel Angle Revilla, an autonomist who governs locally in coalition with the socialists.
The Popular Party (PP, right) of Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, which has made these local and regional elections a national referendum on the policy of Mr. Sanchez, has achieved its first objective: to be the party with the largest number of votes to municipalities. After counting more than 97% of the votes for the municipal elections, the PP gathered more than 6.9 million votes (31.5%), against just under 6.3 million for the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) of Mr. Sanchez (28.1%).
In addition to the PP, the other big winner is the far-right Vox party, already the third political force in Parliament, which, with more than 1.5 million votes in the municipal elections (7.19%), doubled its score in four years and made a spectacular push in many regional parliaments.
“My time will come if the Spaniards want it”
Above all, according to public television TVE and the daily El País, the PP has won at least six of the ten regions hitherto ruled (directly or within a coalition) by the PSOE: Valencia (East), fourth in the country by population, Aragon (Centre), Extremadura (West) , the Balearic Islands (East), Cantabria and La Rioja (North). But the other side of the coin is that in most of these regions it will need the support of Vox to govern, and this far-right party is already looking like a difficult and cumbersome partner for the PP, while this one tries to project a subdued image.
The Socialist Party also lost to the PP the town hall of Seville, the largest city in Andalusia (south) and its main municipal stronghold, as well as that of Valencia. And it is not guaranteed to win that of Barcelona, its candidate having only arrived in second position behind a separatist.
This Sunday’s elections concerned all of the 8,131 municipalities, or 35.5 million voters, as well as the assemblies of 12 of the 17 autonomous regions. Some 18.3 million voters were affected by this second vote. This double ballot was considered a general rehearsal before the legislative elections, the exact date of which is not yet known.
The name of Mr. Sanchez did not appear on any ballot on Sunday, nor that of Mr. Nuñez Feijoo. But the issue was very important for the two men, who had been heavily involved in the campaign, giving these elections the air of the first round before the legislative elections at the end of the year.
The People’s Party made Sunday “a giant step” on the road to lead its leader to the post of prime minister, launched the president of the government of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, member of the PP. Spain “started a new political cycle”for his part affirmed Sunday evening Mr. Nuñez Feijoo, who led the PP to elections for the first time since his arrival at the head of this party, a little over a year ago. “My time will come if the Spaniards want it”he continued in response to the cries of “President! President! » (president of the government) from the crowd gathered at the headquarters of the PP, in the center of Madrid.
Podemos also in sharp decline
Prime Minister since 2018, Mr. Sanchez was faced with many handicaps: the wear and tear of power, the resumption of inflation – even if it is much lower in Spain than in most other countries of the European Union – and the resulting sharp drop in purchasing power. He also had to face the repeated crises shaking the government coalition formed by the socialists and the radical left party Podemos. According to the first results from different regions, Podemos also seems to be in very sharp decline.
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Pedro Sanchez was all the more under pressure as his party had a lot to lose, since of the 12 regions which renewed their assembly on Sunday, the Socialists led 10 (including a region led by a regionalist party with which they are allied). For its part, the PP, which controlled the other two regions, including that of Madrid, won an absolute majority in both. In the capital, the very right-wing president of the region, Isabel Diaz Ayuso (PP), also won the absolute majority of the seats.
“The result is not what we expected”soberly commented the spokesperson for the Socialist Party, Pilar Alegria, looking defeated.