The conservative Popular Party wins the elections in Andalusia

USPA NEWS - The conservative Popular Party (PP in its acronym in Spanish) won the regional elections in Andalusia, held this Sunday, and achieved an absolute majority, which will allow it to govern alone. The PP obtained 32 deputies more than in the elections held four years ago, while the Socialist Party (PSOE) reaped its worst historical result in this region. The extreme right represented in VOX added two more deputies than four years ago, while the centrist Citizens, who in 2018 obtained 21 deputies and held the vice presidency of the regional government for his support of the PP, disappears from the Andalusian Parliament.

The PSOE Socialist Party had won the 2018 elections with 33 deputies out of the 109 that make up the Andalusian Parliament. Second had been the conservative PP, with 26 deputies, and third was the centrist Ciudadanos with 21. An agreement between PP and Ciudadanos allowed the conservatives to govern Andalusia in coalition with the centrist party. After the elections were called, everyone wondered if the Popular Party would be able to achieve an absolute majority or if, on the contrary, it would need the support of the ultra-conservative VOX. The far-right candidate had already warned that, if her deputies were necessary for the investiture of the conservative candidate, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, she would demand the vice presidency of the regional government.

However, the Andalusians turned out en masse to vote this Sunday and gave the absolute majority to the Conservatives. Participation was 57.99% and abstention was 42.01%. Greater participation and less abstention than four years ago, and fewer invalid votes, only 1.12%. Details that speak of the importance that Andalusians gave to this election day, a hot Sunday in June in which the beach was more appealing than going to vote. But more than 3.4 million Andalusians cast their votes in the polls, and gave victory to the conservatives of the Popular Party.

The PP won 58 seats – the absolute majority was set at 55 -, the PSOE 30, VOX 14, the left-wing party Por Andalucía 5 and the far-left party Adelante Andalucía 2. The latter had achieved 17 deputies in 2018. No combination of forces would allow the left to govern Andalusia, while the conservatives will be able to govern alone, without counting on the extreme right. "The Andalusians have said that a large party cannot depend on a small party to govern," analyst Lucía Méndez interpreted this Sunday night on public television. "The patience of the Andalusian has ended," added, for his part, the columnist Jorge Bustos in the digital edition of the newspaper El Mundo.

The big loser of the elections held this Sunday in Andalusia was the centrist Ciudadanos party, which disappeared from the regional Parliament. His candidate, Juan Marín, who was vice president of the regional government in coalition with the PP, announced that he will present his resignation this Monday. But not only Ciudadanos, the Socialist Party also lost the elections. With three deputies less than four years ago, it obtained the lowest number of votes in its entire history in Andalusia. And the defeat is interpreted in a national key.

The socialist candidate, Juan Espadas, was Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's man in Andalusia. His defeat is interpreted as censorship of the policies of the Spanish Government. Nor did it help to improve the image of Socialism that, in the middle of the electoral campaign, the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero claimed to be proud "of all the socialist presidents of Andalusia," including those who were prosecuted and convicted of corruption and embezzlement of public money.