Antonio Asencio, Sigma Dos Communication Director, analyse in our videoblog what happened in the last Andalusian elections. Andalusia is one of the most populated region of Spain and the results are relevant for the national political scene.
According to Asencio, the results have two explanations. On the one hand, for the first time in the 40 years old Spanish democracy, the conservative and center right parties have obtained a majority of the popular vote in Andalusia, and the Socialist Party, which for 36 uninterrupted years has been in power, could lose the regional Government. On the other hand, and also for the first time in democracy, a extreme right party, Vox, has managed to enter a Spanish parliament with 10% of the votes and a relevant number of seats, 12. This is the most shocking point in this election results because these seats are going to be decisive. Center and center right parties, the Popular Party and Ciudadanos (Citizens), need Vox parliamentarians to form the majority that would remove the Socialist Party from power in Andalusia.
The polls detected the rapid growth of Vox but none foresaw the political turn-around. The trend consolidated in the last few days before the election, when, under the Spanish electoral law, research centers are not allowed to publish polls.
As Asencio tells, the emergence of an extreme right party, like Vox, makes of Spain no longer an exception in Europe, where nationalists, anti-immigration, and euro-skeptic parties have gained influence in the last years. Vox proposes a “firm hand” against illegal immigration, and, in response to the Catalan separatist challenge, the elimination of the regional parliaments, which are enshrined in the Spanish Constitution.
Undoubtedly, the results are going to affecting Spanish politics. Indeed, Vox is already consolidating its position in national polls, according to which the extreme right party would obtain around 7% of the votes.
