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.
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
He said he had considered it “around the clock” before ruling out amnesty for separatists.
(AFP)
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