Spanish regional elections, 2015

Spanish regional elections, 2015

24 May 2015

All 804 seats of the regional parliaments of Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and León, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, La Rioja and Valencia Registered 19,794,301 2.5% Turnout 12,970,917 (65.5%) 1.9 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Mariano Rajoy Pedro Sánchez Pablo Iglesias Party PP PSOE Podemos Leader since 2 September 2003 26 July 2014 15 November 2014 Last election 410 seats, 46.0% 261 seats, 28.8% Did not stand Seats won 281 227 118 Seat change 129 34 118 Popular vote 3,886,901 3,172,873 1,813,044 Percentage 30.4% 24.8% 14.2% Swing 15.6 pp 4.0 pp New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Albert Rivera Cayo Lara Mònica Oltra Party C's IU Compromís Leader since 9 July 2006 14 December 2008 31 January 2015 Last election 0 seats, 0.0% 34 seats, 6.2% 6 seats, 1.4% Seats won 56 9 19 Seat change 56 25 13 Popular vote 1,271,368 536,707 456,823 Percentage 10.0% 4.2% 3.6% Swing 10.0 pp 2.0 pp 2.2 pp

Galicia Navarre Madrid La Rioja Aragon Catalonia Valencian Community Castile– La Mancha Extremadura Castile and León Asturias Cantabria Basque Country Murcia Andalusia Ceuta Melilla Balearic Islands Canary Islands Galicia Navarre Madrid La Rioja Aragon Catalonia Valencian Community Castile– La Mancha Extremadura Castile and León Asturias Cantabria Basque Country Murcia Andalusia Ceuta Melilla Balearic Islands Canary Islands

Results by autonomous community. Most voted party:   PP   PSOE   UPN   No election held Regional administrations after election: (lighter shades show minority or coalition governments)   PP   PSOE   CC   PRC   GBai   No election held

The 2015 regional elections were held on 24 May 2015 in Spain, to elect the regional parliaments of 13 of its 17 autonomous communities: Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and León, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, La Rioja and the Valencian Community. Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country did not hold elections that day because they had separate electoral cycles. Municipal elections were held throughout Spain the same day.

The novelty of these elections was the irruption of two new parties: Podemos (Spanish for "We can"), a party founded in 2014 before the 2014 European Parliament election, and Citizens (C's), a Catalan unionist party created in 2006 to stand in the Parliament of Catalonia elections. Podemos scored a strong third place, close to the two main parties in several regions and entering in all regional parliaments (a first for any party aside from PP and PSOE), while C's placed fourth in most regions, not achieving parliamentary representation only in Canarias, Castile-La Mancha and Navarre.

The People's Party (PP), which in 2011 had obtained some of its best historical results and went on to govern 10 out of the 13 autonomous communities at stake, suffered one of the harshest loss of votes for any party in regional elections. The party lost all of its absolute majorities, compared to the 8 it had achieved in 2011, suffering from the electorate's punishment to Mariano Rajoy's management of the economic crisis in the Spanish government, the party's loss of credibility after many broken 2011 election promises and a series of corruption scandals that had been affecting the party's national and regional leaderships since the unveiling of the Bárcenas affair in January 2013.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) still suffered from the party crisis resulting from the 2008-2011 Zapatero government and lost votes since 2011, which was already considered the worst historical result for the party. Namely, the rise of new and alternative parties prevented the PSOE of capitalizing the PP losses, though it still remained the first or second political force in most regions.

Election date

The determination of the election date varies depending on the autonomous community, as they have different regulations. Initially, regional presidents didn't have the power to dissolve the regional parliaments and call elections of their own, but this notion has evolved over time throughout different reforms of the autonomies' electoral laws and/or Statutes of Autonomy.

• The presidents of the Valencian Community (from 2006), Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Castile and León (2007) and Navarre (2010) may dissolve the regional legislatures and hold elections at any time different than the date set by law (usually the fourth Sunday of May).
• The presidents of Madrid (from 1990), Castile-La Mancha (1997), Cantabria, Murcia (1998), Asturias, Extremadura and La Rioja (1999) may dissolve the regional legislatures and hold elections at a time different than the date set by law, but these do not change the period to the next ordinary election, with newly elected MPs merely serving out what remains of the previous projected four-year parliamentary term.
• By the time of the 2015 regional elections, the President of the Canary Islands is the only chief of a regional government that hasn't been granted the power to dissolve the regional legislature, and elections in Canarias are only held at the fixed date set by law.^[1]

The fourth Sunday of May 2015 was 24 May, and elections were set to be held that day.

National results

Party		Vote		Seats
		Votes	%
	People's Party (PP)	3,886,901	30.43	281
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	3,172,873	24.84	227
	We Can (Podemos)	1,813,044	14.19	118
	Citizens-Party of the Citizenry (C's)	1,271,368	9.95	56
	United Left (IU)	536,707	4.20	9
	Commitment Coalition (Compromís)	456,823	3.58	19
	Canarian Coalition-Canarian Nationalist Party (CC-PNC)	166,979	1.31	18
	Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD)	165,900	1.30	0
	Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA)	102,700	0.79	0
	Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC)	96,070	0.75	12
	New Canaries (NC)	93,634	0.73	5
	Navarrese People's Union (UPN)	92,705	0.73	15
	More for Majorca (MÉS)	66,199	0.52	9
	Yes to the Future (GBai)	53,497	0.42	9
	Basque Country Unite (EHB)	48,166	0.38	8
	Aragonese Party (PAR)	45,846	0.36	6
	Asturias Forum (FAC)	44,480	0.35	3
	Proposal for the Islands (PI)	34,237	0.27	3
	Aragonese Union (CHA)	30,618	0.24	2
	Leonese People's Union (UPL)	19,176	0.15	1
	Gomera Socialist Group (ASG)	5,090	0.04	3
Other parties		367,594	2.87	0
	Blank ballots	202,817	1.59
Total		12,773,424	100.00	804
Valid votes		12,773,424	98.48
Invalid votes		197,493	1.52
Votes cast / turnout		12,970,917	65.53
Abstentions		6,823,384	34.47
Registered voters		19,794,301

Regional governments

Autonomous community	Party Before		Outgoing Government	Party After		Incoming Government
Aragon		PP	Coalition (PP-PAR)		PSOE	Coalition (PSOE-CHA)
Asturias		PSOE	Minority		PSOE	Minority
Balearic Islands		PP	Majority		PSOE	Coalition (PSOE-MÉS)
Canary Islands		CC	Coalition (CC-PSOE)		CC	Coalition (CC-PSOE)
Cantabria		PP	Majority		PRC	Coalition (PRC-PSOE)
Castile and León		PP	Majority		PP	Minority
Castile-La Mancha		PP	Majority		PSOE	Minority
Extremadura		PP	Minority		PSOE	Minority
La Rioja		PP	Majority		PP	Minority
Madrid		PP	Majority		PP	Minority
Murcia		PP	Majority		PP	Minority
Navarre		UPN	Minority		GBai	Coalition (GBai-EHB-IE)
Valencian Community		PP	Majority		PSOE	Coalition (PSOE-Compromís)

References

1. Regulation of the power to dissolve the regional legislatures. Institute of Autonomic Studies.