The PP achieves its fifth consecutive absolute majority in Galicia, while the BNG grows and the PSOE sinks

PP maintains the percentage of the vote, although they lose two seats, while the BNG grows at the expense of a PSOE with the worst historical result

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 18 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PP strengthens its fiefdom in Galicia and will be able to govern this autonomous community for another four years, having achieved its fifth consecutive absolute majority, with a minor attrition of only two deputies compared to the last results that Alberto Núñez Feijóo had achieved before leaving, ago. two years, to Alfonso Rueda as successor.

Rueda, who was the general secretary of the PP for almost four years that the popular party was in the opposition and Feijóo's right hand in all of his governments until he became his replacement, has won 40 seats in the regional elections this Sunday. Of 42 years of autonomy, the popular have governed for 36 and could reach 40 years if they complete the next legislature and there is no electoral advance.

Ana Pontón's BNG achieves a rise of six seats, to 25, at the expense of a PSdeG-PSOE that reaps its worst historical results, falling to nine seats in a Galician Parliament in which Democracia Ourensana, the party of the mayor of Ourense, Gonzalo Pérez Jácome. Neither Vox nor Sumar achieve representation.

Pending the scrutiny, next Monday, February 26, of the envelopes of the 29,300 Galicians residing abroad who participated in these elections (6.15% of the Electoral Census of Absent Residents), the PP achieves an incontestable victory in Galicia, which also helps consolidate Feijóo's leadership.

After bringing forward the elections in Galicia by five months, making them coincide with the debate on the Amnesty Law, and after a campaign with intense involvement by Feijóo (he campaigned in the community on 13 of the 15 days during which the vote can be requested ), the popular ones concentrate 47.4% of the support.

With 97% of the vote counted, the popular party managed to enter 51,400 more votes into the polls compared to the previous regional elections. They lost one seat for A Coruña and another for Lugo.

The nationalists were already starting from one of the best results in their history: the 19 seats they had obtained in 2020, but in this Sunday's elections they also break their ceiling in votes, by managing to put 454,500 votes in the polls, with 97% of the votes counted.

Ana Pontón, a deputy since 2004, went from taking the reins in 2016 of an organization broken after the split in 2012, to tripling the number of seats and once again being the second political force in the Galician Parliament in the 2020 elections. This Sunday, the nationalists consolidated themselves as the second opposition force by having achieved six more deputies: two for A Coruña, the same number for Pontevedra, and two for Lugo and Ourense.

On the other hand, Ferraz's hopes that José Ramón Gómez Besteiro would be the candidate with whom the upward trend interrupted in the 2012 elections would be resumed, when the PSdeG began to fall in number of deputies, until it became the third force in 2016. In the Galician Parliament, they encountered this Sunday the reality of achieving their worst historical results.

The involvement of Pedro Sánchez in the campaign in Galicia, where he was eight times last month, as well as that of the PSOE, with sessions of up to five ministers at a time in the community and the participation of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in half a dozen of rallies, they were not able to stop the decline of more than five points in the percentage of support.

This Sunday, 50,000 fewer ballots were entered into the polls than in 2020, which translated into five fewer seats: two fewer for Pontevedra and the same number for Ourense and one less for A Coruña. They are only stabilized with two seats in Lugo, the province of Besteiro, who barely had a few months to become a candidate, after in 2016 he had to resign from facing Feijóo for the presidency of the Xunta and ended up resigning due to accusations of corruption by the which was exempt.

Democracia Ourensana had run for regional elections in 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2016 without managing to enter the Parliament of Galicia, but growing in number of votes. After the PP had reached an agreement with DO in the 2020 regional elections so that it would not run in the elections, in this Sunday's elections the party of the mayor of Ourense obtained more than 14,000 votes and will debut in the Pazo de O Hórreo.

Despite achieving 4,000 more votes compared to the previous regional elections and obtaining 32,000 supports, Vox is far from the 5% barrier to enter the Galician Parliament. Galicia is the only autonomous community that has not given Santiago Abascal any seats in its regional Parliament or in Congress (it only has one councilor in Avión, a town in Ourense with 1,800 inhabitants).

Sumar's 27,700 votes are not converted into seats either, meaning that it does not achieve a territorial base in the home community of its leader and second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, in its first foray into regional elections. Entry into the Galician Parliament was important for Sumar, which is in the process of articulating a broad front of parties at the state level with its founding assembly scheduled for March 23.

They also fail to profit from the 3,800 votes of Podemos, which decided to run outside of Sumar in these elections and is behind options such as PACMA.