People's Party wins elections in Castilla y León but needs a pact
The People's Party needs the support of at least 10 more lawmakers to be able to govern, and the current distribution of seats between the left and right blocks leaves little room to find partners beyond the far-right
The Spanish People's Party (Partido Popular, PP) won elections in the Spanish region of Castile and Leon on Sunday, but failed to win enough support to form a government on its own.
The right-wing party led by the candidate Alfonso Fernandez Manueco will need a partner, either within the government or in the regional Parliament to be able to push through the laws over the next 4 years. And, in view of the results, the main candidate to play that role is the far-right Vox party.
The People's Party needs the support of at least 10 more lawmakers to be able to govern, and the current distribution of seats between the left and right blocks leaves little room to find partners beyond the far-right.
The analysis of the results of the February 13 election shows a community, Castilla y Leon, the largest in Spain in size, which after more than 30 years of right-wing government (the People's Party has been ruling since 1989) has moved even further to the right.
The People's Party remains the majority with 31 seats in the regional parliament, despite losing nearly 55,000 votes. Its previous coalition partner, the liberal moderate Citizens party (Ciudadanos), almost disappeared from parliament by taking only one seat compared to the 11 before.
The far-right, the most benefited
The big winner of the night was the far-right Vox party. With 17.6% of the votes, the party led at the national level by Santiago Abascal has gone from having a single seat to winning the 13 seats in the regional parliament and holding the key to forming a government.
The Socialist Party (PSOE) that governs in Spain remains the second party in Castilla y Leon, but also losing support compared to the 2019 elections. The Socialist candidate, Luis Tudanca, who was the most voted and won 35 seats in the 2019 elections, now two years and a half later has fallen to 28 seats and has lost more than 120,000 votes.
The People's Party called early elections, presenting them in national terms as an opportunity for citizens to show their rejection of the policies of the left-wing central government headed by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
After the vote, the political panorama is even more complicated and the most benefited from this political maneuver is the far-right.