A regionális és az országgyűlési választások tapasztalatai Spanyolországban

Absztrakt

On 28 May 2023, regional and local elections were held in Spain. As a result of the local elections in twelve autonomous communities, the structure of the party system changed substantially. Whereas the Popular Party (PP) won 31.5 per cent of the votes and became the largest political force in the Iberian country, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party suffered significant losses compared to 2019, winning barely three of the 12 regions, where the vote was held. Its main coalition partner, Unidas Podemos lost its key role in the formation of local governments in several autonomous communities, including Aragonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. The centrist, Ciudadanos, only obtained 300 000 votes and remained without any representation in the regional parliaments. Vox became the third largest party with 7,19 per cent of the votes, which played an important role in the coalition negotiations between the two main right-wing parties at the regional level. Due to the defeat of the left-wing coalition, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez officially announced to held general elections on 23 July 2023. As a result of parliamentary elections, the right-wing Popular Party won 33 per cent of the votes (176 mandates), whereas the socialists trailed 121 seats in the 350-seat lower house, but none of them obtained the absolute majority of the votes cast (176 seats). The aim of the paper is to analyse the results of the local and parliamentary elections in Spain by taking into account the factors that determined the restructuration of the party system in the Iberian country. Besides the evaluation of regional elections, emphasis will be placed on the detailed analysis of the consequences of the general elections of 23 July 2023.