Regional elections were held in Spain’s Aragón area yesterday, and they turned into a rout for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s party. Surging conservative parties either picked up seats or held theirs to be able to form coalitions to fend off the slumping ruling Socialists.
Spain’s ruling Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) suffered a crushing setback in the snap regional elections in Aragón.
In the ballot yesterday, it slumped to one of its worst historical performance, losing ground amid a surge by the right-wing Vox party.
Provisional results from the Government of Aragón and the National Electoral Commission, with more than 98 per cent of votes counted, show the centre-right People’s Party (PP) emerging as the largest force with 26 seats in the 67-seat Cortes of Aragón. That is down two from its 2023 tally, despite topping the poll with around 34 per cent of the vote.
The PSOE, led by former minister Pilar Alegría, collapsed to 18 seats, down five, equalling its all-time low from 2015. It secured 24.3 per cent of the vote in what analysts describe as a humiliating defeat for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s party.
Vox delivered the night’s clearest winner, more than doubling its representation from seven to 14 seats and claiming nearly 18 per cent of the vote, a sharp rise that cements its role as kingmaker in any right-wing coalition.
Sanchez’s stunningly cynical gambit to invite up to 500K illegals to obtain Spanish citizenship as long as they cast a vote isn’t paying off the way he’d hoped.
…Crowds of migrants are heading there after hearing that all they need to do is vote for the far left to receive Spanish citizenship in return.
In Aragón, the People’s Party (PP) and Vox had worked together a few years ago, so this changes little but the numerical weight of the partnership, with the nationalist Vox party gaining in popular support. There will be some tension as this new coalition comes together, though, as the PP is very tentative around Vox’s much more aggressive immigration policy platforms and nationalist leanings.
Now that Vox has gotten much stronger, the negotiations could be fraught with some delicate moments of disagreement.
But voters in this ‘Ohio of Spain’ bellwether region want change and voted for precisely that.
And that’s really no surprise, as Sanchez’s personal scandals and the unrelenting migrant situation drove voters to swing the polls further to the right, handing Sanchez his second regional loss in as many months.
…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.
Conservatives are hoping that this trio of regional elections – the second in March in Castilla y León, with the third and last in Andalusia in June – will collapse what’s left of the wobbling Sanchez government.
Spain’s conservatives hope a trio of impending regional elections will collapse the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the EU’s only remaining heavyweight national leader from the center left.
First up this Sunday is the northeastern region of Aragón, dubbed the “Spanish Ohio” thanks to its track record as a barometer of the national mood. The center-right People’s Party (PP) appears to be heading for victory, but a surging far right is likely to make the biggest gains.
Aragón will be followed by two more elections in PP-held regions — Castilla y León in March and Andalusia in June. For the conservatives, the goal is to seize on the corruption scandals in the Socialist party, which have severely weakened Sánchez, to confirm the PP’s regional dominance and dial up pressure on the government in Madrid.
…Sánchez’s coalition is already on the ropes following a storm of scandals.
Probes into a kickback scheme implicating two former senior Socialists, as well as sexual harassment allegations concerning other figures in the party, have been hogging headlines in recent months. An ongoing investigation into the business dealings of Sánchez’s wife and the upcoming trial of his brother on charges of influence peddling have given the opposition further ammunition.
Meanwhile, two January train crashes that killed a combined 47 people and triggered rail chaos in some parts of Spain have added to the government’s woes.
A ballot held in the western region of Extremadura in December handed the PP electoral momentum: The party made modest gains while the Socialists lost 10 of their 28 seats.
The Spanish socialist brand, they say, ‘is wearing thin.’
…For the PSOE, the night was bleak. The fall from 23 to 18 seats under the candidacy of Pilar Alegría, until recently a senior government spokesperson, reinforced the sense that national power now carries a heavy electoral cost. Aragón, often described as a miniature version of Spain’s political map, is sending an uncomfortable message: the Socialist brand is wearing thin.
…Beyond Aragón, the implications are national. The region has long acted as an electoral barometer, and this vote reflects Spain’s wider reality: a centre that still rules but hesitates, a patriotic right that keeps growing, a Socialist Party in decline, and a radical left losing relevance.
I can’t imagine how the socialists have lost their luster but they are most assuredly on the slide.
…Her party got less than 1% in yesterday’s regional elections in Aragon and will be without representation in the local parliament.
It’s bad enough when citizens suspect you have a replacement plan.
They get downright cranky when you flat-out admit it.
Take heart, though, Spanish leftists. If you’re thrown out completely, you and your illegal friends could always skip over the border to Protugal. They’ve just elected a leftist lunatic as president, totally bucking the rightward trend across the continent.
…Yet, Portugal, elected a lunatic socialist with 70% of the vote last night.
Are the Portuguese really that blind or is there massive voter fraud going on there?
I’m sure he’ll be all the warm, fuzzy, and great like Sanchez was…while he lasts.
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