Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party suffered a historic defeat in Sunday’s regional elections in Andalucía, which once stood as a bastion of far-left politics in the country.
The largest local “autonomous community” government in the country, Andalucía, was previously governed by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) for nearly four decades, from 1982 to 2018.
However, the devolved administrative government now appears to be solidly in control of the political right, as the PSOE saw its lowest vote share ever on Sunday at just 22.7 per cent, public broadcaster RTVE reported. The result will equate to just 28 seats in the 109-seat local legislature, down from 30 in 2022, 33 in 2018, and 47 in 2015.
The failed socialist campaign was led by María Jesús Montero, a former Finance Minister and longtime ally of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, both of whom have been dogged by corruption allegations.
Following the announcement of the results, Montero admitted that her party had fallen short, saying simply, “We take note.”
“The citizens place us in the opposition, and from there we are going to exercise,” she added.
In addition to the ongoing scandals involving alleged corruption at both the national and local levels against the PSOE, the drubbing also comes in the wake of January’s tragic high-speed train crash near Adamuz, in the province of Córdoba in Andalucía.
While investigations continue, public sentiment has widely blamed the Socialist government in Madrid, which oversees trains and rail infrastructure nationwide.
The vote was also the first time that Spanish citizens could voice their opinion of the Sánchez government in the wake of his international dispute with the Trump administration, over his refusal to allow the American military to use military bases in Spain during Operation Epic Fury in Iran. President Trump has threatened to impose a trade embargo on Spain, and rumours have swirled that Washington may seek to expel Madrid from the Western NATO alliance.
Although the Socialists lost ground, the centre-right People’s Party (PP) also saw its vote share decline, from 43.1 per cent in 2022 to 41.6 per cent on Sunday. This will also mean that the establishment conservative party will see its representation in the Andalucía Parliament fall from 58 to 53.
Crucially, this falls short of the 55 seats needed for a governing majority, meaning that the party will likely need to enter into a coalition of some sort with the populist anti-mass migration VOX party, which stood as the only of the top three national parties to see its vote share increase, from 13.5 per cent in 2022 to 13.8 per cent on Sunday.
Juanma Bonilla, the head of the Andalusian branch of the People’s Party, who has led the regional government since 2019, suggested that his party would be willing to come to an agreement with VOX. Such an agreement could lay the groundwork for a future national-level arrangement following the next general election.
Regardless, VOX’s strong performance has solidified the party’s place in the political conversation and will likely be used to continue pushing back against Prime Minsiter Sanchez’s controversial illegal migrant amnesty scheme, which may regularise upwards of a million migrants in the coming months.