After counting more than 97 percent of the ballots for the local elections, Sánchez’s Spanish social democratic party PSOE received just over 6.1 million votes (28.18 percent), the conservative Popular Party (PP) received 6.9 million votes (31 March 2018). .47 percent).

According to media reports, the PP is likely to replace the social-democratic PSOE in several regions, including the eastern region of Valencia. In addition, the PSOE is likely to lose the city hall of Seville, the largest city in Andalusia, and one of its bastions to the PP, as reported by the Spanish television channel TVE. At the same time, the PSOE failed to recapture Barcelona’s city hall as it had hoped. According to initial results from the regions, the left-wing Podemos, coalition partner of the PSOE, also suffered a loss of votes.

The election was considered an important yardstick for the upcoming national parliamentary elections at the end of the year, in which the fate of Sánchez’s minority government will be decided. So far, his social democratic party PSOE has ruled in ten of the twelve regions in which voting took place. The PP hoped to replace the PSOE in up to six of these regions. According to the partial results, the PP achieved its goal of winning more votes than the PSOE.

The strongest opposition party wants to use such an election success to gain momentum for the national parliamentary elections, the exact date of which has not yet been set. However, the PP also has to contend with competition from the right-wing extremist party Vox. This is already the third strongest force in the Spanish national parliament and wants to establish itself as an irreplaceable partner for the formation of right-wing governments.