The major loss of seats in Andalusia, which has been the dominant power in the autonomous region for 36 years, came as a blow to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s party.
The party managed to get only 33 seats in the 109-member regional parliament of Andalusia, compared to 47 in 2015; the region had been called a “Socialist bastion” for 36 years, the Associated Press reported. Five parties now sit in the legislature, but none have the 55 seats needed to govern without forming a coalition.
The conservative People’s Party and centre-right Citizens party now hold 26 seats and 21 seats respectively; Adelante Andalucia, a left-wing party, got 17 seats. This makes Vox the key to the creation of a conservative coalition in Spain’s most populous region.
Diaz said she would call on other parties to “build a firewall against the extreme right in Spain,” referring to the success of Vox and other conservative parties pushing for a tougher stance on immigration.