Six months before the parliamentary elections, the Prime Minister’s Socialist Party Pedro Sanchez suffered an extremely heavy defeat in the municipal and regional elections held yesterday Sunday in Spaina result that does not bode well for his tenure at the end of the year.

The leader of the People’s Party (PP), the main right-wing opposition, Alberto Nunez Feijo immediately spoke of a “new political cycle”.

Yesterday, the NP took a “giant step” on a path that is expected to lead Mr. Feijo to the post of prime minister at the end of 2023, Andalusian government chief Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, leader of the Spanish right, said. .

In addition to PP, another major player has been the far-right Vox party, already the third most powerful in parliament, which, with over 1.5 million votes in municipal elections (7.19%), doubled its percentage in four years, achieving spectacular entry into parliament. several local parliaments.

Opinion polls predicted a victory for the right in yesterday’s dual elections, but no one expected the Socialist Workers’ Party of Spain (PSOE) to suffer such a loss.

“Flood on the Right”

The head of the outgoing government in Cantabria (north), Miguel Ángel Revilla, leader of the local faction allied with the Socialists, spoke of a “flooding of the right”, both PP and Vox, while the head of the PSOE government in Aragon, referred to a “tsunami” that had swallowed “wall” of the socialists. Both were defeated.

“The result was not what we expected,” summed up PSOE spokeswoman Pilar Alegria, clearly upset.

The NP, which turned local and regional elections into a national referendum on Mr. Sanchez’s policies, has achieved almost all of its goals.

First of all, she won the most votes in municipal elections, over 7 million (31.5%), or two million more than four years ago, compared to less than 6.3 million (28.1%) received PSOE of Mr. Sanchez.

Thus, according to the Spanish public television network TVE and the newspaper El País, the PP won in at least six of the ten regions where the PSOE managed until yesterday (on its own or thanks to alliances): Valencia (east), the fourth most populous nationwide , Aragon (center), Extremadura (west), Balearic Islands (east), Cantabria and Rioja (north).

However, the flip side of the coin is that in most of these constituencies it will need the support of Vox to govern, with the far-right party declared a difficult and difficult partner for the NP to project a moderate image.

These two factions have already ruled the district together since last year.

The Socialist Party was defeated by the PP in the municipality of Seville, the largest city of Andalusia (south) and its traditional stronghold, as was the case in Valencia. And it is not a fact that he will win in Barcelona, ​​where his candidate took only second place after the separatist.

Absolute majority in Madrid

Yesterday’s elections concerned all 8,131 municipalities, that is, 35.5 million voters, as well as the parliaments of 12 out of 17 “autonomies” (regions) of the country. 18.3 million voters took part in this second aspect of the elections.

And it was this second vote that was considered the dress rehearsal for the parliamentary elections, the date of which is not yet known.

Neither Mr. Sanchez nor Mr. Feijo were candidates in yesterday’s elections.

But the stake was very important for the two politicians who actively participated in the election campaign, to such an extent that analysts regarded this showdown as a harbinger of wind ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Mr Sanchez has campaigned for his government, mostly in the economic arena. Mr. Feijo also plunged into the electoral campaign for the first time since becoming leader of the NP.

The People’s Party not only retained the two regions it ruled (Madrid and Murcia), but gained an absolute majority in both. As in the metropolitan municipality.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}