The Popular Party closed the electoral evening in Extremadura with exaltation. An “unprecedented political transformation”, according to sources in Genoa: from one of the most powerful socialist strongholds to that the right almost doubles the left.
The results of Maria Guardiola The 21-D consolidated an increase of more than four points for the popular party, while the PSOE collapsed, losing more than 14. “The sanchism transformed one of the former socialist bastions into a region more right-wing than Galicia“.
Since the creation of autonomy in 1983, the PSOE has won 10 of the 11 electoral elections held. Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ibarra He reigned for 16 years in a row. AND Guillermo Fernández Vara He continued the work for another 12 years, with the only interlude in 2015, when Jose Antonio Monago He brought the PP to the presidency, thanks to IU’s abstention during the inauguration.
For four decades, Extremadura was an impregnable attic for socialist voices. The PP (formerly Alianza Popular) acted like an eternal troop in a region where the left generally exceeded 50% votes under the mandates of Ibarra and Vara.
This historical hegemony, only interrupted by the parenthesis of Jose Antonio Monago in 2011 – “and with a predominantly left-wing Parliament”, recalls a popular spokesperson–started to crack definitively in 2023.
Today, the warning of two and a half years ago has resulted in the greatest debacle ever recorded for a party that had just won in an Autonomous Community… only comparable to that of the UCD in the 1982 general election.
The Parliament of Extremadura suffered a total metamorphosis. Today, it is a chamber dominated 60% by the sum of the right-wing PP and Vox. A figure that resizes the political map of the region in a “historical” way.
The last absolute majority of the PP in Galicia it was reached with 47.36% votes in 2024. And adds Vox, the conservative bloc does not reach 50%.
It is for this reason that in Genoa it was recognized that the absolute majority was never close, even if the polls suggested it. “Even Monago did not succeed in 2011, with 46% of the votes”says a spokesperson for the popular party.
Even if Guardiola’s team was still playing with this option last week. “Nobody gave a cent for us in 2023and some of us were convinced that we would govern”, explains a very close collaborator of the president of Extremadura.
Gallardo collapses
The context which favored this collapse is multiple. The PSOE, led by Miguel Angel Gallardowas facing a perfect storm.
The announcement of closure of the Almaraz nuclear power plant This caused a visceral rejection in a region that is energetically dependent on the installation. The calculations speak of hundreds of direct unemployment and thousands of indirect unemployment.
But above all, Gallardo went to the polls with an insurmountable burden. It was a candidate unwanted neither by voters nor by its leader, Pedro Sánchezwho wanted to defenestrate him until Brother affair took the form of an oral trial.
Gallant Awaits trial for hooking up David Sánchezbrother of the President of the Government, by creating a position for him ad hoc within the Provincial Deputation of Badajoz.
A job that has never been exercisedwhile its owner officially resided in Portugal to avoid taxes, even if He apparently resided in Moncloa…
“Sánchez forced Gallardo to self-immolate… and made the regression of socialism around the world a reality. total collapse in Spain“, explains a senior official from Genoa.
“Socialism is increasingly linked to theft. The PSOE is comparable to the mafia behavior of dirty deals and omertà“. This perception, already established among the average Spanish voter, is progressing in Extremadura with particular virulence.
“Social change”
What happened this 21-D is also the first battle of a rally autonomous that the PP observes with the eyes of a winning bet.
February 8 arrives in Aragon, where Pilar Alegria faces similar expectations “like sanchist black leg and dinner with Paco Salazar“. Then, Castilla y León in March. And finally, Andalusia between May and June. Each call promises new victories for the PP.
“The social change we are seeing in Spain is unprecedented“, they argue in Genoa. It is no longer a left-right battle. From now on, “the only battle that interests them in the PSOE is the internal battle on the right”so that the PP cannot get rid of Vox.
In Extremadura, for the first time in forty years, there was no longer any doubt about the victory of the PP. Not even if he could govern. But if I could do it “without depending on the whims imposed by the national management of Vox” in the region.
All that remains is to dispel this doubt, because the Aragonese have already tasted the historic turnaround. Jorge Azcon in the night of Genoa… and simply repeating the data of its region (and later in Castile and León, and later in Andalusia), the “social change” in Spain will paint the path from Feijóo to Moncloa in a more intense blue.
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