Wendy Williams
IN a shock result in the Andalucian regional elections Jose Antonio Grinan will remain president of the Junta, despite losing.
The rival Partido Popular actually won the regional election for the first time in its history, but was short of the absolute majority leaving PSOE and the IU able to team up to take control of the Junta.
The PP obtained 50 seats, PSOE 47 and IU 12.
PP candidate Javier Arenas said: ‘We are going to behave as what we are, the largest political force in Andalucia.’
However Grinan insisted he was going to put every effort into having a ‘stable’ government over the next four years.
“We have recovered the support we lost in the general elections and turned around in the polls.”
Many people have been left shocked however by the result especially as the polls in the weeks leading up to the election had predicted a clear victory for Arenas.
Following the ERE scandal support for PSOE reached an all time low and in the general election four months ago the PP had an advantage of 400,000 in the number of votes with a 9 per cent lead.
However on Sunday night the lead in votes was a tenth of that, with the PP vote in the region falling from 1,982,000 to 1,550,000.
The PP won in Cadiz and Malaga but only by a single seat, with their best province being Almeria where they obtained seven seats compared to the socialist’s four.
In Granada and Cordoba the number of seats was tied, while the Socialists won in Huelva, Jaen and Cordoba although the PP tied in the number of seats.
In Sevilla the PSOE kept their two seat advantage.
It was also successful night for the IU which obtained 110,000 votes more than in 2008 and managed to double its seats to 12.
Meanwhile, in Asturias the PP lost the election but will be able to govern with Foro.
A statement from the party headquarters spoke of ‘surprise and disappointment’ and admitted the results in Andalucia and Asturias were lower than expected.
Nothing wrong with the article, but what is the reason for the totally misleading headline?
No different to the recent UK election then. lol.
The headline is pretty accurate. The difference with the UK is that the Tories actually did come first. Here it’s the losing party that will form the coalition.
“Coming first” and having an outright majority are such different things. If the Lib Dems partnered with Labour at the last UK election then Labour would essentially be in power in the UK, despite being the party with the second largest number of votes, so the same scenario as Spain. A “losing party” is the one who does not have enough votes for an overall majority and who can’t make a coalition to rule outright.
You need a majority of seats to win. The PP didn’t get a majority of seats, so it didn’t win. The left, POSE and IU, did get a majority of seats. So the left won.
“If the Lib Dems partnered with Labour at the last UK election then Labour would essentially be in power in the UK, despite being the party with the second largest number of votes, so the same scenario as Spain.”
…but they didn’t, so they aren’t and it isn’t!
Andalucia desperately needed a change of Government. PSOE have been in power for 30 years and Andalucia remains at the head of all the wrong tables, adult unemployment, youth unemployment literacy, etc, etc. Tubes need to be cleaned and a PSOE/IU coalition will be incapable of cleaning them….
Vote Communist.
Dave, the fact they didn’t isn’t the issue. The issue is that the scenario is the same. If they did, then Labour would be in power even though they had less votes. The coalition in the UK is very fragile, so never say never.