OUR Hispanic Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchezannounced today, Monday, that he will dissolve parliament and that the country will start early parliamentary elections on July 23, after his party’s heavy defeat in municipal and regional elections on Sunday.

“I made this decision after I saw the results of yesterday’s elections,” the Spanish prime minister said in a televised speech.

Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and its junior coalition government partner Podemos lost ground in yesterday’s elections, while the rival conservative People’s Party (PP) and far-right Vox won.

“While yesterday’s elections were of a local and regional nature, the meaning of the vote sends a message that goes beyond that nature. That is why, as Prime Minister and General Secretary of the PSOE, I am personally responsible for the results,” Sanchez said.

It is noted that the result of yesterday’s match is considered a bad omen for his tenure in power.

“New political cycle”

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

The NP yesterday took a “giant step” on a path that is expected to lead N. Feijo to the premiership at the end of 2023, Andalusian Prime Minister Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, leader of the Spanish right, to bet.

In addition to PP, the other big player is the far-right Vox party, already the third most powerful in parliament, which, after winning more than 1.5 million votes in municipal elections (7.19%), doubled its percentage in four years, making a 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.

Straight up tsunami

The head of the outgoing government in Cantabria (North) Miguel Ángel Revilla, leader of the local faction allied with the Socialists, spoke of an “influx of the right”, both PP and Vox, while the head of the PSOE government in Aragon mentions the “tsunami” that swallowed up the socialist ” wall.” 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 P. Sanchez’s policy, has practically achieved all of its goals.

First of all, he 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 P. Sanchez.

Thus, according to the Spanish public television TVE and the newspaper El País, the NP dominated at least six of the ten regions where the PSOE ruled until yesterday (alone or thanks to alliances): Valencia (east), the fourth most populous in the whole country, Aragon (center), Extremadura (west), Balearic Islands (east), Cantabria and Rioja (north).

However, the other 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 being declared a difficult and difficult partner for the PP, which wants to project a moderate image. .

These two factions have ruled the region 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. This second aspect of the election was attended by 18.3 million voters and was considered a dress rehearsal for parliamentary elections, the date of which is not yet known.

Neither P. Sanchez nor N. Feijo ran for office in yesterday’s elections. However, the stakes for the two politicians who actively participated in the election campaign were so high that analysts described this confrontation as a weather vane on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

P. Sanchez presented his government’s account of the campaign, mainly in the economy. N. Feijo was also fully involved in the electoral battle, for the first time since he headed the PP.

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

^{According to Reuters, AFP, APE – MEB}