It was not until fifteen hours after the polling stations closed that Pedro Sánchez found his voice again. Tired and pale, the Spanish Prime Minister stepped up to the lectern in front of the cabinet room of the Moncloa Palace. Sunday's debacle was followed by a political bang.
Hans-Christian Rößler
Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.
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The leader took personal responsibility for the heavy defeat of his PSOE party in the local and regional elections and announced early parliamentary elections for July 23. This is not the first time that Sánchez has tried to regain the initiative and go on the attack with a surprising push.
On 1 June 2018, he won the first successful vote of no confidence in the history of Spanish democracy in parliament and surprisingly overthrew the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy. Previously, the tall former basketball player had fought his way back to the top of the PSOE party from a hopeless position. In 2016, he was defeated in an inner-party power struggle and voted out of office. In 2019, he had two elections to form the first coalition of Spanish democracy.
But this time, after five years in office, Sánchez faces a more dangerous challenger. The conservative People's Party (PP) has regained strength throughout the country: on Sunday, it won 31.5 percent of the vote nationwide with more than seven million votes, while Sánchez's PSOE won only 28.1 percent.
The conservatives won several absolute majorities: In Madrid, regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso and mayor José Luis Almeida can govern alone, as the PP can do in the Rioja region, where the Socialists have so far led the government. Only in Castilla-La Mancha and Asturias was the PSOE able to assert itself clearly.
Like a countdown before the change of power
On Genova Street in the centre of Madrid, the DJ with his loudspeaker batteries was almost unnecessary on Sunday to set the mood in front of the PP headquarters. Again and again he played the song "I got a feeling that tonight's going to be a good night" by the Black Eyed Peas. From all over the country, he announced victory announcements on election night.
For many of the partying PP supporters, they were the countdown to the change of power on that cool evening. The PP did not present itself with detailed programmes in the elections, but – alluding to the last name of the head of government – called for the "overthrow of sanchism".
The PP's successes in Madrid were almost lost on election night, when one socialist stronghold after another fell: Seville, Valladolid, Balearic Islands and Extremadura. In the Canary Islands, too, it remains to be seen whether the PSOE will continue to govern. The jubilation was greatest when the results from Valencia arrived. With the regional government and the town hall, the PP had demolished one of the most contested bastions of the left.
It was not until after midnight that the three election winners of the PP came onto the stage in front of the party's headquarters to the sounds of Coldplay. More applause than the PP chairman Alberto Núñez Feijóo was given to the Madrid regional president Ayuso. It wasn't just because Madrid was a home game for them. With her aggressive political style, reminiscent of Donald Trump, she has been inspiring more and more residents of the capital region, where the PP is traditionally strong, for the past two years. Most recently, she accused Sánchez personally of electoral fraud.
The party chairman Feijóo, on the other hand, was modest and supportive of the state after the relentlessly conducted election campaign. He appealed to the unity of the Spaniards, although his triumph was no less great. In the 13 months at the helm of the PP, he had already won an absolute majority in Andalusia in 2022. Feijóo would like to follow the example of Andalusia and Madrid in the parliamentary elections. He is also fighting for his own majority in the national parliament.
The influence of right-wing populists is growing
How he wants to keep it with Vox, Feijóo did not reveal the day after the election. This showed that the PP could end up being dependent on the right-wing populists: in Valencia, Cantabria, Aragón, the Balearic Islands and Extremadura, the conservatives need Vox to govern. This is also the case in many local parliaments.
Vox received a good seven percent of the vote in the local elections nationwide and entered all regional parliaments. Vox leader Santiago Abascal is therefore confidently demanding a "national pact" from the PP in order to govern together wherever the right has won. Vox has become an "absolutely crucial party" to replace the left.
Sánchez had successfully used his fear of the extreme right in the 2019 election campaign to mobilize support for his minority government. But the parties to the left of the Socialists, which the PSOE leader desperately needs for his re-election, are also facing a political heap of rubble. Sánchez's junior partner, Podemos, has lost virtually everywhere. In Madrid, the party that emerged from the 15M protest movement is not represented in either the city council or the regional government. In the Andalusian port city of Cádiz, the PP replaces the left-wing alternative mayor at the head of the town hall.
Even more bitter is the election result in Barcelona, where the Socialists had hoped for a victory. There, former mayor Xavier Trias of the separatist "Junts" party won. Incumbent Ada Colau, who herself replaced him in 2015, only came in third. It is the main ally of Communist Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, who has begun to unite the small left-wing parties with her new national platform "Sumar". The allies have become fewer, time is of the essence.