Spain’s Castile and Leon regional election is a key test for the Socialists and conservatives against the rising far-right Vox, with national implications for 2027.
MADRID: Spain’s governing Socialists and the conservative opposition Popular Party face a crucial test against the ascendant far-right in a regional election this Sunday that could signal trends for national polls due next year.
The vote in the vast, agricultural region of Castile and Leon is being keenly scrutinised as Spain’s decentralised system grants regions significant powers over health and education.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists risk a third consecutive regional defeat after resounding losses in Extremadura and Aragon in recent months.
This election also marks Sanchez’s first electoral test since his controversial foreign policy moves, including denying the United States use of Spanish bases for strikes on Iran and openly denouncing the war.
The Prime Minister’s party has seen its popularity battered by a backdrop of sexual harassment scandals and corruption investigations affecting his wife, brother and former Socialist heavyweights.
While the conservative PP won in Extremadura and Aragon, it fell short of majorities and was forced to rely on support from the far-right Vox to govern.
The PP has governed Castile and Leon for almost four decades, but Vox entered a regional government there for the first time since Spain’s 1970s return to democracy after forming a coalition with the PP in 2022.
That alliance fell apart in 2024 due to disagreements between the parties’ national leadership.
Current polling suggests Vox could gain seats to consolidate its position as the region’s third party, with the Socialists in second and the PP winning but far from a majority.
The PP has already expressed a willingness to work again with Vox, a scenario that could be repeated at a general election due in 2027.
“The only red line is with socialism in Castile and Leon, because they cannot be trusted,” the region’s PP leader Alfonso Fernandez Manueco told El Pais daily.
Sanchez accused the PP and Vox of trying to demobilise progressive voters, calling their strategy “quite clear” in an interview with online newspaper elDiario.es.
