Spain's ruling socialist party loses reign in regional elections

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
29 May 2023 09:06

The country's right-wing party secures almost 75 percent of the regions that saw voting.

The Spanish flag is seen outside the Constitutional Court building in Madrid, Spain, December 29, 2022. (Reuters)

Spain's left-wing ruling Socialist Workers' Party PSOE suffered a heavy loss in Sunday's regional and local elections against its conservative rival People’s Party PP, Spanish media reported.

The PP led the race with 7.43 million votes, surpassing the socialist party by almost 3.4 percentage points, Europa Press agency said.

Spaniards across the country voted for mayors in 8,131 municipalities, while also electing leaders and assemblies in 12 of Spain's 17 regions.

The PSOE was only able to secure three regions it used to govern, the news agency added.

Commenting on the results, the spokesperson of the residing party, Pilar Alegria, said in a press conference that the results are not "what we hoped for."

The leader of the PP considered that his party's win marks a new political era for Europe's fourth-largest economy.

"Spain has started a new political cycle," Alberto Nunez Feijoo said, as per AFP. "It is the victory of another way of doing politics." On her part, the party's secretary general Cuca Gamarra considered the outcome “an immense blue tide.”

Ignacio Jurado, political science lecturer at Carlos III University, considered that Feijoo's win "completely changes the map" and is a "boost for him ahead of the elections at the end of the year."

"In votes the right-wing bloc expands but not dramatically. But that swing is enough to shift the center of gravity from the left to the right," he added, according to Reuters.

The outgoing leader of the Aragon socialist party Javier Lamban considered that "the tsunami that has swept through all the Spanish regions today has also swept through us."

35.5 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in the local elections, and 18.3 million were eligible to vote in the regional elections.