ELECTION RESULTS IN MADRID: VICTORY TO THE RIGHT, DEBACLE TO THE LEFT, ABSOLUTE DISASTER AT THE CENTER

Campaign poster of candidate Isabel Diaz Ayuso  for the 2019 regional election

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by Rose Maramba

Here are the stunning results of the highly polarized snap election in the Autonomous Community of Madrid last 4 May 2021:

♦ An unmitigated debacle for the socialist party, PSOE, who went from 37 seats in the Madrid Assembly (Asamblea de Madrid, the region’s unicameral legislature) in the 2019 election to 24 this time around. PSOE’s defeat is downright shameful considering that in 2019 it was the party that won the most number of votes and seats though far short of a legislative majority that would have allowed it to govern in the region.

♦ The leader of far-left Unidas-Podemos Pablo Iglesias, who resigned his post as Second-Vice President in the leftist coalition government of Spain under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to run for Madrid Regional President, racked up equally dismal results.

This put paid to Iglesias’  ephemeral career as a frontline politician.

♦ Resounding victory for the incumbent Regional President Isabel Diaz Ayuso who doubled her party’s (PP) seats and can now count on a near-absolute majority in the Regional Assembly: 65 seats. The majority threshold is 69 in the 136-seat Assembly.

That being the case, Ayuso will need the support of far-right Vox to govern. But just barely.

Once again, the Autonomous Region of Madrid is in the hands of conservative PP.

♦ Having garnered less than 5% of the votes cast, the center-right party, Ciudadanos, with whom Ayuso partnered for her erstwhile right and center-right coalition government in Madrid,  has lost all Assembly representation.

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Featured image/PP Comunidad de Madrid, CC BY2.0