Juan Manuel Moreno, president of Andalusia, announced on Monday that regional elections will be held there on Sunday 19 June.
The right-wing People’s Party (PP) has governed Andalusia, a traditional stronghold of the PSOE socialists, since January 2019 in a minority with the support of the right-wing Vox party and Ciudadanos (Cs).
Vox had lent its support after becoming the first far-right grouping to enter a regional assembly in four decades, since the restoration of democracy following the 1975 death of dictator Franco.
The far-right party then went on to become Spain’s third largest party at the national level, winning 52 seats in the Spanish Congress at the November 2019 General Election.
The Andalusian government’s current term officially expires in December this year, but Moreno said that the region needed a government with a fresh mandate to tackle what he described as an ‘economic pandemic’ of soaring inflation following the impact and aftermath of Covid.
Andalusian law prohibits an election being held in July and August, when many voters are on summer vacation. Moreno said that leaving the polls until autumn would not give a new administration enough time to approve a budget for 2023 that confronts the ‘difficult time we are living in’. The Andalusian president stressed that it was now ‘vital’ for the region to start next year with a new budget to face the tough time ahead.
According to political pundits, the so-called ‘Feijoo effect’ has also weighed heavily on Moreno’s decision to bring forward the elections, with polls looking more positive for the right-wing PP group following the recent appointment of its new national leader, Alberto Nuñez Feijoo.
The regional election on 19 June will be a test for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s minority coalition government (PSOE–Podemos) ahead of a national election expected at the end of 2023, and it could also see Vox make further gains in the region.
Vox entered a regional government for the first time since the dictatorship of Franco as part of a coalition agreement with the PP following the elections held in February in Castilla y León.
Surveys suggest that the PP will win the most seats in the next Andalusian election, and could manage to form a majority in the 109-seat assembly if it forms a coalition with Vox.
The PP has 33.1% support, which would give it 44 seats, whilst Vox is on track to win 20 seats, according to a poll published Sunday in daily newspaper El Mundo. This would give the two formations a total of 64 seats, nine more then needed for an absolute majority.
Andalusia, home to 8.5 million people, has high unemployment and is one of the main arrival points in Spain for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Sign up for the FREE Weekly Newsletter from Spain in English.
Please support Spain in English with a donation.
Click here to get your business activity or services listed on our DIRECTORY.
Click here for further details on how to ADVERTISE with us.
