The victory of the People’s Party in the regional elections of Andalusia this Sunday has already been taken for granted by all known polls in recent weeks, but the surprise was the absolute majority that the Andalusians gave to the centre-right party. The last legislative assembly won just 26 deputies, while the PP elected 58 parliamentarians, winning a historic victory in Spain’s most populous region.
After 55 elected parliamentarians passed, the calculators remained in the pocket of the current president of the Junta de Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, who, with the help of a personalist campaign, manages to hold on to the presidency without the need for a recount to achieve a majority. The consistent red lines drawn in the campaign and the demand for Vox to enter the state government crumble with this scenario. FROM more elected deputies than all the left put together, The Andalusian map looks completely blue: all eight provinces have been conquered by the people.
At the end of the evening, Juanma Moreno says that, having entered the history of the region, Andalusia “will have four years of prosperity, honesty and tranquility.” The president of the region argues that an absolute majority “would mean not impudence, but efficiency” and that he would rule “for all”.
The victory in Andalusia has emboldened the centre-right in Madrid, ushering in a new electoral cycle in which the People’s Party wants to present itself with the opportunity to discuss government leadership with the Socialists. The general election is still a year and a half away, but the first test of the new leader of Galicia, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, has been successfully passed. The relevant data was the NP’s ability to contain the advance of the far right in the region, where Vox unexpectedly flared up in 2018 (defeating 12 MPs and garnering 11% of the vote). While in the last legislature, Vox’s parliamentary support was needed to create a regional government for the PP and the Citizens, the far-right party has found itself without real power and has only a marginal increase in its parliamentary representation. The Seville Parliament has 14 elected deputies.
Although not stated, the success of two different concepts within the PP itself was also at stake. Unlike the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, who advocates rapprochement with the extreme right, Juanma Moreno follows a more moderate political model. It is now in Feijoo’s hands to understand what formula and discourse at the national level will allow him to reach Moncloa.
PP general secretary Cuca Gamarra appeared to reporters in Madrid to say that the victory belongs to his candidate Juanma. Moreno, and Andalusians who chose “good government, moderation and a different way of doing politics”, on a day that “represents a failure”Sanchismo”. A majority that represents the “antagonistic result of weak government” in Moncloa.
The PSOE Socialists achieved the worst results in this election in a region they have dominated for decades. They failed to mobilize their electorate and lost three deputies due to the already historically negative result of 2018 (when they elected 33 regional deputies). The former mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, said that, despite the failure in the elections, he intends to remain at the head of the Andalusian party and take his seat in parliament. At the national headquarters of the PSOE, the poor result was justified by the fact that the new regional leadership of the party had to consolidate an alternative government in a short time. Socialist Deputy National General Secretary Adriana Lastra also says that “this election is the last stop on the path charted by the previous leadership of the NP, with three autonomous elections in three regions favorable to the NP.” [Madrid, Castela e Leão e Andaluzia]but the result failed because the PSOE maintains its lead in the polls at the national level.”
To the left of the PSOE was the Por Andalucia coalition with five parliamentarians, while Adelante Andalucia, a splinter from Podemos, elected two deputies.
The worst news has come for the Ciudadanos Liberals, who continue their electoral agony and disappear completely from the Andalusian political scene after already disappearing from the Madrid Assembly and left with only one parliamentarian in Castile and León. The current vice-president of the regional government, Juan Marin, cannot be elected to the new parliament and has announced his resignation from the leadership of the party in the region.
What is certain is that bipartisanship has returned to Andalusia, with the PP and PSOE representing over 67% of the vote and holding eight out of ten seats in the Seville parliament.
