2016 Galician Regional Election
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The 2016 Galician regional election was held on Sunday, 25 September 2016, to elect the 10th
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
of the
autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...
of Galicia. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in the Basque Country.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo Alberto Núñez Feijóo (; ; born 10 September 1961) is a Spanish People's Party politician. He currently serves as senator from Galicia and as president of the People's Party. He served as the president of the Regional Government of Galicia ...
announced the election would be brought forward to September, after initially scheduling to hold it throughout October, following
Lehendakari The President of the Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria, es, presidente del Gobierno Vasco), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari ( eu, lehendakari, es, lendakari), is the head of government of the Basq ...
Iñigo Urkullu Íñigo Urkullu Renteria (born 18 September 1961) is a Spanish politician, and the Lehendakari (President) of the Basque Government since 2012. As the President of the Basque Government, he headed the First, Second and Third Urkullu Governments ...
's announcement of a Basque election for 25 September. Feijóo defended his decision in that it would make "no sense" to hold the election only weeks after the Basque poll, specially considering the state of political instability in Spain over the government formation process after the general election in June. The election took place in a situation in which the Spanish political landscape had undergone a major transformation within a short time, with a decrease in support for the People's Party (PP) and the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
(PSOE) nationally and the emergence of new parties such as Podemos and
Citizens Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
(C's). Feijóo's PP, with 47.6% and 41 seats, went on to secure a third consecutive absolute majority, the only one at the time in Spain after the 2015 electoral cycle. The Podemos-supported
En Marea En Marea (translated in English as "In Tide") is a political party and former political alliance integrated by Podemos, Anova, United Left of Galicia, and some municipal alliances that participated in the 2015 Spanish local elections ( Marea Atl ...
list, which had already achieved major breakthroughs in the region at the
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
and 2016 general elections, placed narrowly ahead of the
Socialists' Party of Galicia The Socialists' Party of Galicia ( gl, Partido dos Socialistas de Galicia, PSdeG–PSOE) is a centre-left political party in Galicia, Spain. It is the Galician affiliate of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). It defines itself as a Gal ...
(PSdeG–PSOE) which scored the worst result of its history in a Galician regional election. Concurrently, the
Galician Nationalist Bloc The Galician Nationalist Bloc ( gl, Bloque Nacionalista Galego, BNG ) is a political alliance of left-wing Galician nationalist parties. It is self-defined as a "patriotic front". Formed in 1982, under the guidance of historical leader Xosé Man ...
(BNG) saw a slight drop in support but was able to outperform opinion poll predictions of an electoral meltdown. Finally, with 3.4%, Cs fell well below their aspirations of entering parliament, failing to secure any seat. The results of the Basque and Galician elections, both of which saw very poor PSOE's performances after being overtaken by the Podemos-led alliances and polling at record-low levels of support, prompted dissenters within the party—led by
Andalusian president The president of the Regional Government of Andalusia ( es, Presidente de la Junta de Andalucía) or, simply the president of Andalusia ( es, Presidente de Andalucía), is the premier of the devolved government of the Spanish autonomous community o ...
Susana Díaz—to call for
Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
's resignation as PSOE secretary-general. Sánchez's refusal to resign and his announcement of a party congress for later in the year—amid an ongoing government formation process and with the growing risk of a third general election in a row being held in Spain—led to an attempt from his critics to force his downfall, triggering a severe party crisis and a break down of party discipline which led to Sánchez's ousting on 1 October 2016, a divided PSOE abstaining in
Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
's investiture on 29 October and a subsequent party leadership election in 2017 which would see Sánchez returning to his post of secretary-general and taking full control over the party.


Overview


Electoral system

The
Parliament of Galicia The Parliament of Galicia () is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. It is formed by 75 deputies (). Deputies are elected every four years in ordinary period, or extraordinarily upon dissolut ...
was the
devolved Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...
,
unicameral legislature Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
of the
autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...
of Galicia, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the
Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was e ...
and the regional Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a regional president. Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of
universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...
, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Galicia and in full enjoyment of their political rights. Additionally, Galicians abroad were required to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote ( es, Voto rogado). The 75 members of the Parliament of Galicia were elected using the
D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest- ...
and a
closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some inf ...
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, with an
electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...
of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the
provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
of
A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...
,
Lugo Lugo (, ; la, Lucus Augusti) is a city in northwestern Spain in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. It is the capital of the Lugo (province), province of Lugo. The municipality had a population ...
,
Ourense Ourense (; es, Orense ) is a city and capital of the province of Ourense, located in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path of the Way of St ...
and
Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the ''Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality whi ...
, with each being allocated an initial minimum of 10 seats and the remaining 35 being distributed in proportion to their populations. The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the
district magnitude An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
.


Election date

The term of the Parliament of Galicia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election
decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Galicia (DOG), with election day taking place between the fifty-fourth and the sixtieth day from publication. The previous election was held on 21 October 2012, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 21 October 2016. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 27 September 2016, with the election taking place up to the sixtieth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament on Saturday, 26 November 2016. The president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Galicia and call a
snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...
, provided that it did not occur before one year had elapsed since a previous dissolution under this procedure. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.


Background

While the People's Party (PP) under
Alberto Núñez Feijóo Alberto Núñez Feijóo (; ; born 10 September 1961) is a Spanish People's Party politician. He currently serves as senator from Galicia and as president of the People's Party. He served as the president of the Regional Government of Galicia ...
had been able to remain at the helm of the
Xunta de Galicia The Xunta de Galicia (; "Regional Government of Galicia") is the collective decision-making body of the government of the autonomous community of Galicia, composed of the President, the Vice-President(s) and the specialized ministers (''Consell ...
following the 2012 regional election, the party struggled to maintain its electoral standing in the ensuing years as a result of the corruption scandals beleaguering the party at the national level. In the
2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...
, the PP obtained its worst result since 1989 up until that time, securing 35.2% of the vote though remaining in first place regionally as a result of a collapse in the vote for the opposition
Socialists' Party of Galicia The Socialists' Party of Galicia ( gl, Partido dos Socialistas de Galicia, PSdeG–PSOE) is a centre-left political party in Galicia, Spain. It is the Galician affiliate of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). It defines itself as a Gal ...
(PSdeG–PSOE) and
Galician Nationalist Bloc The Galician Nationalist Bloc ( gl, Bloque Nacionalista Galego, BNG ) is a political alliance of left-wing Galician nationalist parties. It is self-defined as a "patriotic front". Formed in 1982, under the guidance of historical leader Xosé Man ...
(BNG). The emergence of Podemos and
Citizens Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
(C's) and the reorganization of the political space of non-Galician nationalists to the left of the PSOE, including the late
Galician Left Alternative The Galician Alternative of the Left ( gl, Alternativa Galega de Esquerda, AGE) was an electoral alliance of left-wing independentist and federalist political parties in Galicia, Spain. History It was formed in early 2012, following a schism wit ...
(AGE) comprising United Left (EU) and
Anova Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a collection of statistical models and their associated estimation procedures (such as the "variation" among and between groups) used to analyze the differences among means. ANOVA was developed by the statistician ...
, into the local "tides" ( es, mareas)—popular unity candidacies established at the local level to contest the 2015 local elections, such as
Marea Atlántica Marea Atlántica ( en, Atlantic Tide) is a grassroots movement and political coalition in the city of A Coruña, Spain. History The original goal of the movement was to build a left-wing and participative political convergence towards the Spani ...
, Compostela Aberta or
Ferrol en Común Ferrol en Común (Ferrol in Common or Ferrol Together, ''FeC'') is a grassroots movement and political coalition in the city of Ferrol, Galicia whose goal is to build a left-wing and participative political electoral alliance. FeC is supported b ...
, among others—brought about the PP's downfall from the local governments of the main Galician urban centres and in left-from-centre parties securing much of the local power in Galicia, with the ''mareas'' newly found popularity coming at the expense of both the PSdeG and the BNG. The establishment of the
En Marea En Marea (translated in English as "In Tide") is a political party and former political alliance integrated by Podemos, Anova, United Left of Galicia, and some municipal alliances that participated in the 2015 Spanish local elections ( Marea Atl ...
alliance between Podemos, EU and Anova would see the PP seeing off its worst electoral result in a general election on 20 December 2015, although the party would see a slight recovery in the next general election held in June 2016. After his defeat in the 2012 election, Pachi Vázquez announced his intention to abandon the PSdeG's leadership within a year and to allow for a primary election to be held to elect his successor. The primaries were held on 7 September 2013, with José Ramón Gómez Besteiro emerging as the winner with 77% of the votes, subsequently ratified at a special party congress held on 29 September. Gómez Besteiro came under public scrutiny after being indicted on 3 July 2015 for four crimes, including
influence peddling Influence peddling is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. It is also called traffic of influence or trading i ...
,
bribery Bribery is the Offer and acceptance, offering, Gift, giving, Offer and acceptance, receiving, or Solicitation, soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With reg ...
, prevarication and a crime against regional planning, allegedly committed during Besteiro's time in the local government of
Lugo Lugo (, ; la, Lucus Augusti) is a city in northwestern Spain in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. It is the capital of the Lugo (province), province of Lugo. The municipality had a population ...
in 2005. On 12 March 2016, Besteiro was accused of six further crimes—new bribery, prevarication and influence peddling crimes, as well as abuse of public administrations, subsidy fraud and embezzlement of public funds—which prompted him to announce the following day his declination to be the party's leading candidate to the Xunta de Galicia in the next regional election. Mounting pressure from his party's colleagues, however, eventually led to Besteiro also resigning as party leader on 18 March. Xoaquín Fernández Leiceaga was elected on 28 May through a primary election to be Besteiro's replacement as candidate to the Xunta, while a management committee took charge of the party. The national PSOE was also beleaguered by an internal crisis over
Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
's leadership as a result of the party having secured its worst electoral results since the
Spanish transition to democracy Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
in the 2015 and 2016 general elections, with Sánchez himself having announced an early party congress, to be held at some point following the Basque and Galician elections, in which he would be running for re-election. The PSOE branches in both regions were widely seen as being supportive of Sánchez, prompting dissenters to frame the elections as a test on Sánchez and of the broader political mood in Spain after nine months of political impasse over the government formation process.


Parliamentary composition

The Parliament of Galicia was officially dissolved on 2 August 2016, after the publication of the dissolution decree in the Official Journal of Galicia. The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.


Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed for
parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
and
federations A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...
registered in the
interior ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...
,
coalitions A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...
and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:


Campaign


Party slogans


Election debates


Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 38 seats were required for an
absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...
in the
Parliament of Galicia The Parliament of Galicia () is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. It is formed by 75 deputies (). Deputies are elected every four years in ordinary period, or extraordinarily upon dissolut ...
. ;


Results


Overall


Distribution by constituency


Aftermath

Under Article 15 of the Statute, investiture processes to elect the
president of the Regional Government of Galicia The president of the Regional Government of Galicia ( gl, Presidente da Xunta de Galicia, es, Presidente de la Xunta de Galicia), is the head of government of Galicia. The president leads the executive branch of the regional government. The curr ...
required of an absolute majority—more than half the votes cast—to be obtained in the first ballot. If unsuccessful, a new ballot would be held 24 hours later requiring only of a simple majority—more affirmative than negative votes—to succeed. If the proposed candidate was not elected, successive proposals were to be transacted under the same procedure.


Notes


References

;Opinion poll sources ;Other {{Regional elections in Spain in the 2010s 2016 in Galicia (Spain) Galicia Regional elections in Galicia (Spain) September 2016 events in Spain