Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s right-leaning party on Sunday retained power in his home province of Galicia despite recession and biting austerity measures, official results showed.
The result means Rajoy has avoided a political humiliation in a traditional Popular Party stronghold that would have undermined his standing just as he tries to convince world markets that he can fix Spain’s finances and economy.
But a second regional election in the Basque Country added to the Spanish leader’s challenges as an exit poll showed a new separatist coalition had finished in second place, just after the conservative Basque Nationalist Party which is seeking greater autonomy for the region.
The two regional votes came at a critical time for Rajoy, who is agonising over whether and when to seek a eurozone sovereign rescue to finance the nation’s runaway public debt.
Rajoy’s Popular Party captured 41 seats in the 75-seat Galician parliament, up from 38 seats in the outgoing assembly, official results showed with almost all of the votes counted.
The Popular Party had been defending a tight but absolute majority in Galicia, Rajoy’s home region, which has a population of 2.8 million, and opinion polls a week before the elections indicated it stood a good chance of success.