Nobody expected the mid-February election in Spain’s northwestern region of Castilla y León to result in the People’s Party’s (PP’s) biggest crisis since its founding in 1989.
The PP, which has ruled Castilla y León for 35 years, had called the election a year ahead of schedule in the hope of winning an outright victory. Instead, it will have to depend on its bitter rival, the hard-Right Vox party, to form a government.
Nationally, the Right now has more support than the Left. In Castilla y León, the PP won 31% of the vote – the same as in the last election in 2019, and 31 seats – two more than last time, in the 81-member regional assembly. It was a narrow victory but still a victory, even though the party fell short of an absolute majority. It was sobering for the PP because Vox received nearly 18% of all votes cast, a number achieved with an unknown candidate in a deeply polarised campaign.
