Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the right-wing, lockdown-sceptic candidate of the conservative Partido Popular (PP), has won a resounding victory at yesterday’s (4 May) regional election in Madrid. The PP more than doubled its share of seats in the regional assembly, which represents both the Spanish capital and the surrounding region, from 30 seats to 65. That puts it just short of the 69 needed for a majority in the 136-seat legislature, meaning Ayuso only needs the far-right party Vox (whose seat share rose from 12 to 13) to abstain in order to hold the region’s presidency. She is also expected to use Vox support to secure majorities for items of legislation.
The story of Spanish politics in recent years has been one of the fragmentation of the country’s old, stable two-party system and, at points, its partial reconsolidation. Following a dismal PP result in 2019, Ayuso had nonetheless became president of the Madrid region, known as the Community of Madrid, at the helm of a coalition with the conservative-liberal Ciudadanos (Cs) party (it, too, a relatively new force in Spanish politics). But in March she called early elections when Cs brought down a similar coalition with the PP in the south-eastern region of Murcia, claiming she was acting to prevent it doing the same to her.
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