Spain’s right wing wins European election in blow to Socialist PM

MADRID - Spain’s centre-right People’s Party (PP) came out on top in June 9’s European election, garnering 22 seats out of the 61 allocated to the country, and dealing a blow to the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Sanchez’s Socialists, spearheaded by Energy Minister Teresa Ribera, earned 20 seats after a campaign in which the opposition honed in on private corruption allegations against the premier’s wife and an amnesty law for Catalan pro-independence leaders passed just one week before the election.

With 99.7 per cent of the vote counted, far-right Vox finished third with six lawmakers, up from the four it had in the previous legislature.

Still, in terms of vote share, support for Vox dipped to 9.6 per cent from 12.4 per cent in the July 2023 general election. The far-right party is struggling to break a vote ceiling of 14 per cent, making it an outlier compared to its peers in other EU countries.

Alvise Perez, a far-right social media influencer running against what he describes as universal corruption, managed to obtain three seats with a campaign mostly conducted through the messaging app Telegram.

The combined right won nearly 50 per cent, while the left followed with 43 per cent.

The leftist vote was split between Sumar - the junior partner in the government coalition - that won three seats and hard-left Podemos, led by former Equality Minister Irene Montero, which got two. REUTERS