Spain’s centrists stem far-right surge in EU vote
- Spain’s centrists have helped to bolster Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s standing as one of the European centre-left’s leading figures
Spain’s centrist parties contained a far-right surge in Sunday’s European parliament elections that is shaking governments in neighbouring countries, helping to bolster Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s standing as one of the European centre-left’s leading figures.
The centre-right People’s Party and Sanchez’s Socialists (PSOE) gained two-thirds of the vote, up from about half of the share in 2019, winning a combined 42 of the available 61 seats. While the anti-immigration Vox party’s vote share rose to 9.6 per cent from 6.2 per cent in 2019, it fell from last year’s national election, when it won 12.4 per cent.
“Spain is well placed in the new European parliament,” Molina said “It is the only member country where both main parties are pro-European.”
Alberto Nunez Feijoo’s People’s Party gained ground from last year’s national election, with his party gaining 1 percentage point.
He had called for the EU elections to be a plebiscite on Sanchez, who has been criticised by some Spaniards for granting a controversial amnesty to Catalan separatists in exchange for parliamentary support to his bid to another term as prime minister.
Feijoo said the People’s Party’s results were the best in 25 years in Europe and said that “every time the People’s Party has won a European election it has won the next general election”.