Spain’s opposition conservative party retained control of its traditional stronghold of Galicia in a close regional election on Sunday, giving the party’s struggling leader a boost.
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According to official results with a vote count rate of 95.5%, the People’s Party (PP) won 47.5% of the vote and an absolute majority of 40 seats in the 75-member local assembly.
The party has ruled Galicia since 2009 and has been unsuccessful in the last four elections under Alberto Nuñez Feijó, who left the northwestern countryside of about 2.7 million people to become national leader in 2022. also won a majority.
Opinion polls in recent weeks have suggested a close election, with the fast-growing left-wing nationalist party BNG and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party jointly pushing the PP out of power. The possibility of securing an absolute majority to oust them is increasing.
The BNG boosted the results, winning 25 seats, gaining votes at the expense of the Socialist Party, which only won nine seats.
However, although the PP won two fewer seats than in the last election in 2020, it still has enough seats to continue governing alone.
“Galicia has strongly and unequivocally chosen to have the best possible government against the possibility of having the worst,” PP Secretary-General Cuca Gamarra said after the results were known.
“Between chaos and stability, voters chose stability, and between unity and division, they wisely chose unity.”
Feijyu exposed to fire
The election comes as Feijoo announced over the weekend that he was in favor of granting a conditional pardon to former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont for his role in Catalonia’s failed 2017 push for independence. It was carried out amid criticism.
He said he had considered it “around the clock” before ruling out amnesty for separatists.
Under his leadership, the PP secured support from Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists in exchange for parliamentary support from two Catalan separatist groups to help Sánchez form a new government after inconclusive national elections in July. He has consistently criticized his offer of amnesty to hundreds of people.
Feijou has repeatedly called the controversial amnesty (which still needs parliamentary approval) a “humiliation” and the PP has held mass demonstrations against it.
His apparent U-turn upset party members and exposed him to accusations of hypocrisy.
“In the morning we will rally and negotiate amnesties and in the afternoon we will protest against the separatists,” Sánchez told an election rally in Galicia on Thursday.
conservative center
Analysts had warned that Feijou’s grip on the party would weaken if it lost its absolute majority in Galicia.
After the PP won the most seats in Spain’s general elections in July, it had already been dealt a blow by failing to win the effective parliamentary majority needed to form a government.
This allowed Sánchez to remain, even though the Socialist Party finished in second place.
The PP has ruled Galicia for 36 of the 42 years it has existed under Spain’s post-dictatorship autonomous regional government system.
This region, located above Portugal, is one of the most conservative regions of Spain. It is also the birthplace of longtime dictator Francisco Franco, his right-hand man Manuel Fraga, and former PP Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Feijou had warned that a BNG victory would bring to Galicia the same “social rupture” seen in Catalonia, which is ruled by separatist parties.
“We can’t let nationalism come here. There is no place where nationalism is doing well,” he said at his final election rally on Friday.
BNG, led by Anna Ponton, is campaigning on a commitment to make language an important issue and promote the use of the Galician language in public education and civil service.
(AFP)