The Popular Party clearly prevailed in the regional elections in Galicia yesterday. He managed to revalidate the absolute majority, the fifth consecutive since 2009, despite losing two deputies.
In the final count, the candidacy of the current president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, has obtained 72,000 more votes than in 2020, when the last elections were held in this community.
Then he managed to overcome 47 percent of the votes, now, with a 20 percent higher turnout than four years ago, he has almost repeated the same figure.
Alfonso Rueda appeared at the end of the night and thanked the trust placed in him “for having the immense honor of being the president of Galicia”. The current president of the Xunta, who made a speech exclusively in Galician, said that Galicia has sent a clear message: “We don’t want blackmail here, neither to do it nor to be subjected to it”.
Rueda expressed his gratitude to all the militants who have collaborated in his victory, but dedicated a special mention to the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has been thoroughly involved in this campaign and who clearly in these elections has won the game for the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, whose party in Galicia literally crashes and loses five deputies and 46,000 votes, despite the increase in participation.
The socialists had always stated in this campaign that if the Galicians were to vote en masse, political change would be possible. Clearly the calculation was wrong.
Last night, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, who, like Alfonso Rueda, was running for the first time in these elections, acknowledged the heavy defeat and announced that his purpose is to work to “consolidate the project”. He will not leave, despite the fact that his candidacy has obtained the worst result of the socialist party in Galicia.
It is still necessary to analyze the results in detail, but it seems clear that one of the factors that has been decisive for the poor result of the Socialists has been the electoral push of Galician nationalism, represented by the Bloc.
The party led by Ana Pontón made the great leap that the polls had predicted and won six more deputies in the Galician Parliament, up to 25 representatives.
The BNG’s harvest is exceptional, with almost 155,000 more votes than in 2020. Its results can be explained by what it has stolen from the other left-wing forces, but also by the vote it has mobilized from abstention.
Pontón has appeared in these elections with a speech focused exclusively on Galicia and away from nationalist rhetoric. A transversal message that has been able to capture votes from all levels of the Galician electorate. This has been one of the keys to his success at the head of a party he has led for more than eight years. Pontón regretted last night that the sum of the left did not manage to double the absolute majority of the Popular Party.
If any reading is clear from Sunday’s results in Galicia, it is that the weak point of the coalition of change has been the Party of the Socialists of Galicia, but also the other left-wing parties, which have also not obtained representation and have wasted a handful of votes for nothing. In the chapter of electoral deaths, the project of Sumar, of the Galician Yolanda Díaz, has not even managed to exceed 1.9 percent of the votes. A slap shared with Podemos, which has obtained an even worse result. To understand the extent of the failure of the two forces, it is enough to say that Vox, which has also not obtained representation, has exceeded the sum of the votes of both parties.
The fourth passenger in this legislature will be Democràcia d’Ourense, the local party of the province of Ourense that managed to enter the Parliament with eight percent of the votes, three points above the barrier set by the Galician electoral law to obtain representation.
