The Partido Popular (PP) received 6.6 million votes (37.34%) in yesterday’s regional and local elections in Spain. In contrast PSOE received 4.9 million votes (27.8%). The election results now make the PP the largest political force in traditional socialist strongholds such as Sevilla and PSOE has lost significant support in Asturias, Baleares, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura. The PP has effectively won in all of Spain’s autonomous regions except for Asturias and Navarra. In addition it has won an overall majority in 3,304 town halls compared to PSOE which has won an overall majority in just 1,858 town halls. Yesterday’s election results have been an undisputed disaster for the socialists. Furthermore PSOE has been defeated in some of its traditional strongholds as was the case in Sevilla where the PP won 49.24% of the vote and twenty seats in the town hall compared to just 29.5% for PSOE and 11 seats. The PP has also won the elections for the regional government in Andalucia for the first time ever with overall majorities in eight of the region’s provincial capitals.
In Castilla-la-Mancha María Dolores for Cospedal won the elections, as predicted by the opinion polls, beating José María Barreda by 25 seats (four more than in 2007) to 24 (two less than in 2007) with 94% of the vote. The PP also won the regional elections for the first time in Extremadura where it won 32 out of 65 seats in the regional government although despite losing 8 seats it still managed to hold on to 30 seats which means that it could still hold on to power if it makes a pact with IU-V-SIEX, which has won 3 seats in the regional government. The presence of Bildu in the regional elections has dramatically changed the political map of the Basque region making it the second largest political force following the PNV.
It won the municipal elections in San Sebastian and won the largest number of seats in Guipuzkoa and the Basque region. The PP won in Vitoria and Alava and PSE suffered severe setbacks in the whole of the Basque region. In Barcelona the CiU won the municipal elections with 15 seats (+3) and beat the Catalan socialists (PSC) which managed to hold on to just 11 (-3). Xavier Trias, (CiU) will become the new mayor of Barcelona only if he is able to make pacts with other parties in order to achieve enough votes to give him a majority in the town hall.
The PSC which had governed in Barcelona for 32 years lost 48,000 votes while the CiU received 20,000 more votes compared to the municipal elections in 2007. The PP won a majority in the Valencian region once again. There were no surprising results in Madrid either where the PP won an overall majority in the Spanish capital’s town hall and in the regional government. In the city of Madrid the PP received 49.70% of the vote (31 seats) compared to 23.95% for PSOE (15 seats) while IU and the Green Party won 10.74% of the vote and 6 seats. The UPyD received 7.85% of the vote and 5 seats. The PP won an overall majority once again in the region of Murcia where it has governed since 1995 and even increased its number of seats in the regional government from 33 to 45 which means that Ramón Luis Valcárcel will remain the president of the regional government for the next four years. On the other hand PSOE won 11 seats (-4) while the IU managed to win 1 seat. In Castilla y León the PP won the majority of the votes in the municipal elections and 48.17% in the regional elections. An especially poignant result was that for Leon the capital of the region and the place where the Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is from where the PP won an overall majority. There were no surprises in La Rioja, where the PP repeated its victory in the regional elections. In Cantabria the PP candidate, Ignacio Diego, could become the next president of the regional government after winning an overall majority for the PP, the first since 1983. In Galicia the PP also won an overall majority with historic wins in A Coruña and Santiago, The PP is also the strongest political force in the Canary Islands although with just 21 seats it doesn’t have enough support to govern on its own which means that PSOE (15 seats) and the Coalición Canaria (21 seats) could make a pact. In Aragón the PP won the elections with 30 seats but PSOE won 22 seats which means that it could govern if it manages to make a pact with PAR or IU. In the Balearic Islands the PP won 35 out of 59 seats giving it an undisputed overall majority. While in Navarra the UPN remains the largest political force with 19 seats compared to just 9 for PSN-PSOE, Nabai with 8 and the PP with 4. Bildu won 7 seats.
