Municipal and regional elections in Spain: hard setback for the socialists; the law prevails in the PP

Six months of national legislatures, the Socialist Party of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, suffered a serious setback in the municipal and regional elections on Sunday in Spain, according to the first official results and media forecasts.

The People’s Party (PP, right), led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had turned this election into a plebiscite on Pedro Sánchez, achieved one of its main objectives and became the party with the most votes in the municipal elections.

With nearly 99% of ballots counted, the PP secured 6.9 million votes (31.53%) compared to 6.2 million (28.14%) of the socialists of Pedro Sánchez.

In addition, the PP had almost secured the conquest of the governments of several regions hitherto led by the socialists, such as Valencia, the country’s fourth region in terms of population, according to public television TVE.

“We are in good times in Spain”, admitted Miguel Ángel Revilla, the regional president of Cantabria, at a press conference, where, according to various media, the right would also have prevailed.

“Of course it is not what we expected after these weeks of election campaign We also need to think about the coming months”, admitted Socialist Party spokeswoman Pilar Alegría.

painful defeats

In another painful defeat, the Socialists would lose the mayorship of Seville, the largest city in Andalusia (south) and one of its strongholds, in favor of the PP, the PP said. TVE.

The socialists also failed in their attempt to regain Barcelona’s town hallthe great metropolis of Catalonia, which it occupied from 1979 to 2011.

On this day without major incidents, the Spaniards were called upon to renew all the country’s municipalities and twelve of the seventeen autonomous communities (regions).

Under the rain in different parts of the country, participation in municipal was ultimately 63.89%lower than in the last election of 2019 (65.19%).

Although Pedro Sánchez’s name did not appear on any of the ballots, nor did Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s, what was at stake was very important for the future of both politicians.

Both were so involved in the campaign that they gave it a national and first round for parliamentary elections at the end of the year, at a date to be determined.

This election shows thatthe desire for change and that alternative (from the PP) is absolutely unstoppable” for the legislature, the PP spokesman, Cuca Gamarra, congratulated himself at a press conference.

Right achieves goals

Sánchez, president of the government since 2018, came to this election test with drawbacks: the wear and tear of force, as well as high inflation – albeit lower than in most European countries – and the resulting decrease in purchasing power.

In addition, the image of the government suffered from the repeated confrontations between the coalition partners: the socialists and the radical left of Podemos.

According to the partial results, Podemos would also have had a net setback.

Sánchez campaigned to inflate his administration’s balance sheet, particularly boasting good economic data.

The Socialist leader had more to lose this Sunday, because of the twelve provinces that renewed their parliaments, and thus their governments, the Socialists ruled in ten, either directly or as part of a coalition.

The PP controlled the other two, including the one in Madrid, where the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, from the party’s hard wing, advanced to conquer an absolute majority in the regional parliament.

If the goal of the president of the left-wing government this Sunday was to resist, then Núñez Feijóo’s goal was twofold: to get as many votes as possible at the national level in the municipal elections and to extort as many regions as possible from the socialists. to show, as he assures, that the country no longer wants the socialist leader.

The problem for the leader of the right is that he probably needs the far right from Vox, third force in the national parliament, to form a government in some regions. Even at the national level in the generals, scheduled for the end of the year.