Basque Country and Galicia regional elections: PNV's Íñigo Urkullu and PP's Alberto Núñez Feijóo back in power
Monday, September 26, 2016 @ 2:15 PM
RESULTS of the Basque and Galician regional elections have been released following yesterday's (Sunday's) votes, and the existing presidents have retained their roles for the next four years.
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) leader Íñigo Urkullu has won 29 seats – two more than in the September 2012 regional elections – and will continue as the federal president, or Lehendakari.
In fact, the PNV gained an additional 13,000 votes, or a total of 37.65% of the ballot papers.
Urkullu is still nine seats short of a majority, but in the second round of the in-house votes where he only needs a simple majority in his favour – more yes votes than no votes – it looks likely he will get through.
The only risk to his continuing in office would be if the left-wing parties banded together in coalition, but this would seem very improbable.
Socialist party PSE did reasonably well and is now able to govern in coalition in three provincial councils and three cities in the Basque Country, although it has still lost a major amount of seats with just nine after the final count.
And the predicted tie between nationalists EH-Bildu and left-wing independents Elkarrekin-Podemos did not arise, with the latter doing worse than predicted – gaining 11 seats – and EH-Bildu a long way off the PNV with 17 seats.
In Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo – who is about to become a dad for the first time at the age of 55, with his girlfriend of 51 – has gained his third outright majority on the trot, meaning he will have been regional president for 12 years by the time the next elections come round in September 2020.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com