Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party sustained its second major loss in two months in a snap regional election, underlining the government’s waning support in large parts of the country.
The conservative People’s Party won 26 seats in Aragón’s 67-strong parliament on Sunday, down from 28 seats in 2023, according to local government data with 98% of votes counted. The Socialists had 18 seats, down from 23, while the far-right nationalists of Vox doubled to 14 to take third place.
The PP late last year called three snap ballots to be held between December and March in regions where it governs as part of a strategy to strengthen its argument that Sánchez is increasingly unpopular. Another region governed by the PP, Andalusia, Spain’s most populated, is likely to hold an election in June.
Sunday’s result means the PP will need support from Vox to govern, as it did in 2023. This outcome is similar to December’s in Extremadura, where the two groups are still to reach an agreement.
The election campaign in Aragón, a northeastern Spanish region of about 1.3 million people, was largely marked by discussions over Sánchez’s national government policies, including a plan announced earlier this year to legalize some half a million immigrants. Sánchez had asked his spokeswoman and education minister Pilar Alegría to step down and run in the election.
The Aragón and Extremadura elections underscored Vox’s growing popularity, as it gained seats in both regions. The nationalists’ increasing support, driven largely by anti-establishment rhetoric, is fanning unease within the PP. The next regional election is slated for Castilla y León on March 15.
Sánchez’s government has delivered the strongest economic growth among the European Union’s largest nations in recent years but has consistently failed to transform this success into voter support. Unemployment has fallen below pre-financial-crisis levels, public debt is declining and the Bank of Spain forecasts economic growth of 2.2% in 2026, well above the euro-area average.
The prime minister’s personal popularity has also been eroded by a number of corruption scandals involving at least two of his closest aides and his wife.
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