MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists will on Wednesday lose power in their southern stronghold of Andalusia and be replaced by an unprecedented coalition of the conservatives and the liberals with the support of the far right.

The Socialists came first in December's local election but failed to secure a majority, and as a result the Popular Party’s Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla is expected to be elected as Andalusia’s president.

Lawmakers from the conservative PP, the liberal Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox — who together command an absolute majority of the chamber — have vowed to back Moreno Bonilla’s bid for power and put an end to 36 years of uninterrupted Socialist rule.

The conservatives have reached deals with Ciudadanos and Vox. The former will get half the Cabinet positions, including the vice-presidency. The later won't be in office but will gain political clout.

In a speech presenting his candidacy to lawmakers Tuesday, Moreno Bonilla said: “I’m aware the coalition government which we have agreed between the Popular Party and Ciudadanos doesn’t command the absolute majority of this parliament and that’s why ... I have reached an investiture agreement with Vox, to achieve change and provide stability.”

On Tuesday, thousands of people attended rallies in Seville and other towns and cities across the country organized by feminist groups to protest against the new government under the slogan “not a single step backward.”

Here are five ways in which the new government will change local and national politics.

Vox is not an Andalusian anomaly.

Polls, analysts and party insiders all predict the far right will expand nationally this year. The first test will come in May, when Spain faces local, regional and European elections.

The traditional Spanish two-party system of Socialists and conservatives ended in 2015 with the rise of Ciudadanos and the far-left Podemos. It will now become even more complicated.

Ignacio Jurado, an analyst for political consultancy Quantio, said increased polarization and the volatility of the political landscape have made ruling the country more difficult. That's not going to change.

2. A new challenge on the right

The PP and Ciudadanos have reacted differently to the rise of Vox.

The PP’s young, energetic leader Pablo Casado has shifted his party to the right to compete with the newcomer. Casado has hardened the party's tone on migration, for example, and given new emphasis to defending traditions such as bullfighting and hunting.

His plan is to convince Vox voters — many of them PP defectors — that Spain’s main conservative party remains their home. “We’ll have to ask Vox if they’re playing at being the PP,” Casado said in a radio interview last week. “The PP is the original.”

Ciudadanos, however, seems embarrassed to be in power thanks to the backing of the far right.

The liberals have refused to meet with Vox’s representatives or discuss a legislative program with them. “There’s no agreement with the far right,” Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera told reporters last week, labeling the document agreed by the PP and Vox “waste paper.”

Looking to the future, the PP has vowed to replicate the three-party agreement in other regions and at the national level, while Ciudadanos has said it would work with the PP or the Socialists, but doesn't want agreements with left- or right-wing extremists.

The ballot in Andalusia was a setback for the Socialists, but Sánchez has seized on the opportunity to attack the PP and Ciudadanos for siding with Vox.

Sánchez is framing the current political climate as a fight between “black and white Spain” — represented by “the three rights” of the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox — and his progressive, feminist and pro-European government.

In a rally over the weekend in Barcelona, the Spanish PM warned the country is facing a crossroads. “There are three rights in Spain with a single goal: involution,” he said. “We say no … it’s time to mobilize.”

While Sánchez seems to have dropped his earlier emphasis on a “more humane” approach to migration, he has doubled down on feminism.

“The government of Spain has made it clear: without feminism, there’s no democracy,” he tweeted Monday, as feminist organizations protested in the streets against the new Andalusian government.

4. Catalonia, the budget and the general election

The Andalusian result seems to have convinced Sánchez to drop plans for an immediate snap election. Sánchez vowed over the weekend to keep ruling until 2020 — yet he’s made many contradictory statements on the issue and rivals and analysts say he may still call an early ballot this year.

Sánchez’s big bet for political survival is the country’s new budget, which is full of social spending increases.

The Spanish Cabinet last Friday approved the draft 2019 budget law and the national parliament will discuss it in the coming weeks. Sánchez needs the support of Catalan pro-independence parties, among others, to have it approved in Congress, which isn’t guaranteed.

Sánchez’s conundrum is that he needs the support of the separatists to get anything done in parliament, but that support — and the ammunition it gives to his rivals — has proven lethal for his Socialists when people go to the ballot box.

“El golpismo tiene premio” [Subversion brings rewards] was the front page of conservative newspaper Abc when Sánchez unveiled the budget plan featuring increased investments in Catalonia aimed at winning the parliamentary backing of pro-independence parties.

“Sánchez doesn't have any alternative,” said analyst Jurado, arguing the prime minister realizes an early election will be self-defeating while his only chance at getting things done in parliament is with the help of Catalan separatists.

In any case, Sánchez is trying to fight back. “Some say being a patriot is shouting everyday ‘long live Spain,’” he told a rally on Sunday. “We say being a patriot is working every day for people in Spain to live better.”

Andalusia’s Moreno Bonilla was all but dead, politically.

He battled against Casado in the PP's internal power contest over the summer and remained the conservatives’ candidate in Andalusia mainly because there wasn't time to find a replacement.

Moreno Bonilla then obtained the worst PP result in the region in decades, losing 30 percent of votes from the previous election in 2015. He also saw his right-of-center rivals Ciudadanos and Vox grow.

Yet despite winning little more than 20 percent of the vote, he will become the first conservative president of Andalusia in Spain’s four-decade-long democracy.

What’s more, some see in Moreno Bonilla a precedent for what may happen in other regions and at the national level: Even if the Socialists come first, a weakened PP may gain power if it manages to coordinate support from Vox and Ciudadanos. </s> A far-right party on Sunday won seats in a Spanish regional parliament for the first time since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, results in Andalusia's election showed.

With 93 percent of the votes counted, the small Vox party took 12 seats, handing a majority to right-wing parties in the southern Spanish region governed by the Socialists for the last 36 years.

The result means that Vox, which opposes illegal immigration and Catalan independence, has exceeded even the most optimistic poll predictions which had forecast a possible five seat win.

The Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) scored the worst result in its history winning 33 seats so far.

Its potential ally on the left Adelante Andalusia (Forward Andalusia) picked up only 17 seats, depriving the left of a majority, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 26 seats and the Ciudadanos liberals took 21 seats.

The poll had been seen as the first of a series of tests for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

It was Sanchez's first electoral test since taking office in June after winning a surprise vote of no-confidence in parliament against the previous PP government of Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal.

His Socialists had ruled Andalusia since 1982.

The vote, however, is a mere foretaste of the coming 'super election year': 2019 will see municipal, regional and European elections and perhaps even an early general election to coincide with the other May polls.

All eyes will now be on Vox which can try to use Andalusia as a springboard in next year's elections.

If it did win a seat in the next general election, it would be the first time a far-right party had had a presence in Spain's lower house of parliament since 1982.

In all, 6.5 million were eligible to vote in the ballot in Andalusia, the country's most populous region and among its poorest.

The PSOE's Susana Diaz -- who last year unsuccessfully challenged Sanchez for the party leadership -- had been seeking to retain the regional presidency while also giving Sanchez and the national party a fillip.

But Vox sought to throw a spoke in their wheels by adding its voice to traditional conservative forces led by the PP and market-friendly Ciudadanos, which has in recent years challenged the PP for the mantle of Spain's dominant liberal force.

"These elections are key as a first step in the removal of Pedro Sanchez" and the PSOE from the government, PP leader Pablo Casado told Radio COPE on Friday.

Casado said a defeat in its traditional southern fiefdom would render the PSOE's attempt to retain power nationally "unsustainable." The Socialists are already walking a tightrope given they hold just 84 seats in the 350-seat national assembly.

Both the PP and Ciudadanos had said during the campaign that if rightwing forces together won a majority of seats they would not rule out accepting support in the regional chamber from Vox.

Vox's campaigning had mainly been against illegal immigration and any decentralisation of powers from Madrid.

"Vox is going to back whichever option entails throwing out Susana Diaz and the Socialist Party" from the regional administration, party deputy-leader Javier Ortega Smith said Saturday.

Diaz meanwhile called for "stability" as she ended her campaign, warning voters against forces of the right and far-right that "want to take us backwards".

Turnout by 1700 GMT was 46.4 percent, the regional government said -- five points down on the last election in 2015. </s> MADRID — Thousands are protesting what they perceive as a threat to women’s equality and protection from a deal to bring a right-wing coalition to power in Spain’s populous Andalusia region that relies on support from an anti-feminist far-right party.

Protesters have surrounded the parliament in Seville, the regional capital, where the conservative candidate to head the Andalusia government, the Popular Party’s Juan Manuel Moreno, is delivering his investiture speech.

Moreno is posed to be sworn in on Wednesday with the support of the centre-right Citizens party, which is taking key cabinet positions, and Vox, the far-right party that wants to scrap domestic abuse laws as well as cracking down on illegal migration and weakening the European Union.

The new cabinet ends 36 years of Socialist rule in the region. </s> A far-right party won seats in a Spanish regional parliament for the first time since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, results in Andalusia's election showed.

With more than 99 percent of the votes counted late Sunday, the small Vox party took 12 seats, handing a majority to right-wing parties in the southern Spanish region governed by the Socialists for more than three decades.

The result means that Vox, which opposes illegal immigration and Catalan independence, has exceeded even the most optimistic poll predictions which had forecast a possible five seat win.

"The Andalusians have made history... and got rid of 36 years of socialist rule," said Vox leader Santiago Abascal.

The Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) scored the worst result in its history winning 33 seats.

Its potential ally on the left Adelante Andalusia (Forward Andalusia) picked up only 17 seats, depriving the left of a majority, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 26 seats and the Ciudadanos liberals took 21 seats.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen sent "warm congratulations" in a tweet to her "Vox friends".

The poll had been seen as the first of a series of tests for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

It was Sanchez's first electoral test since taking office in June after winning a surprise vote of no-confidence in parliament against the previous PP government of Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal.

His Socialists had ruled Andalusia since 1982.

The vote, however, is a mere foretaste of the coming 'super election year': 2019 will see municipal, regional and European elections and perhaps even an early general election to coincide with the other May polls.

All eyes will now be on Vox which can try to use Andalusia as a springboard in next year's elections.

If it did win a seat in the next general election, it would be the first time a far-right party had had a presence in Spain's lower house of parliament since 1982.

In all, 6.5 million were eligible to vote in the ballot in Andalusia, the country's most populous region and among its poorest.

The PSOE's Susana Diaz -- who last year unsuccessfully challenged Sanchez for the party leadership -- had been seeking to retain the regional presidency while also giving Sanchez and the national party a fillip.

But Vox sought to throw a spoke in their wheels by adding its voice to traditional conservative forces led by the PP and market-friendly Ciudadanos, which has in recent years challenged the PP for the mantle of Spain's dominant liberal force.

"These elections are key as a first step in the removal of Pedro Sanchez" and the PSOE from the government, PP leader Pablo Casado told Radio COPE on Friday.

Casado said a defeat in its traditional southern fiefdom would render the PSOE's attempt to retain power nationally "unsustainable." The Socialists are already walking a tightrope given they hold just 84 seats in the 350-seat national assembly.

Both the PP and Ciudadanos had said during the campaign that if rightwing forces together won a majority of seats they would not rule out accepting support in the regional chamber from Vox.

Vox's campaigning had mainly been against illegal immigration and any decentralisation of powers from Madrid.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left Podemos party, called on all leftist groups to mobilise "to defend liberties, social justice, fraternity and ultimately democracy".

Diaz meanwhile called for "stability" as she ended her campaign, warning voters against forces of the right and far-right that "want to take us backwards". </s> In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018 photo, Spain's far-right Vox Party President Santiago Abascal, centre, with the general secretary, Javier Ortega, left, and regional candidate Francisco Serrano take part in a rally during regional elections in Andalusia, in Seville, Spain. The Socialists won just 33 seats in the Andalusia legislature, compared to 47 in 2015. The party could lose control of Spain's most populated region for the first time in 36 years if parties on the right can agree to form a government. The anti-immigrant, extreme right Vox party won 12 seats - its first in any Spanish legislative body. (AP Photo/Gogo Lobato) (AP) </s> A far-right party has won seats in a Spanish regional parliament for the first time since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

With 99% of the votes counted in Andalucía, the small Vox party took 12 seats in the 109-member regional parliament.

The Socialists won the election, but saw their support plummet to just 33 seats, compared to 47 in 2015 – far from the majority of 55 seats needed to govern.

The result means that Vox, which opposes illegal immigration and Catalan independence, has exceeded even the most optimistic poll predictions which had forecast a possible five seat win. The party’s platform includes restricting abortion and rolling back domestic violence laws.

Vox had not previously held any seats in any legislative body in Spain since its founding four years ago, and now it has the key to forming a government in the nation’s most populated region.

“Now is the moment to say loud and clear who we are and that we have come to stay,” Vox candidate Francisco Serrano told a crowd of supporters who chanted: “Spain! Spain! Spain!”

Andalucía has been a Socialist bastion for 36 years, but the party could lose control of the government if parties on the right join forces to oust regional leader Susana Diaz, though that would require that they join forces with Vox.

“Despite winning the election it is a sad night for the Socialist Party,” Diaz said.

“There has been a real loss of ground for the Left. But the worst thing is that the extreme right, a phenomenon that has appeared in the rest of Europe, has arrived here.”

Diaz said she would call on other parties to “build a firewall against the extreme right in Spain.”

“Each party must decide if they are against the extreme right or if they will rely on their support to enter into government,” she said.

The Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) scored the worst result in its history winning 33 seats so far.

Its potential ally on the left Adelante Andalusia (Forward Andalusia) picked up only 17 seats, depriving the left of a majority, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 26 seats and the Ciudadanos liberals took 21 seats.

The poll had been seen as the first of a series of tests for Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez.

It was Sanchez’s first electoral test since taking office in June after winning a surprise vote of no-confidence in parliament against the previous PP government of Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal.

His Socialists had ruled Andalusia since 1982.

The vote is a mere foretaste of the coming “super election year”: 2019 will see municipal, regional and European elections and perhaps even an early general election to coincide with the other May polls.

All eyes will now be on Vox, which could try to use Andalusia as a springboard in next year’s elections.

Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report </s> (CNN) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for April 28.

Sánchez made the announcement at a press conference in Madrid on Friday, saying: "I have informed the King. I will dissolve Congress and call for elections for the 28th of April."

The announcement comes two days after his Socialist government suffered a defeat in Parliament after failing to get its 2019 budget passed.

Spain's electorate is also set to vote in a series of local and European elections in May.

A busy electoral year follows on from December 2018 regional elections in the southern province of Andalucia, in which the far-right Vox party unexpectedly won 12 seats. </s> The big news on Sunday was that the Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Pedro Sánchez, won the highest number of seats at the Spanish general election. But the outcome of the vote also had an impact on other issues. Here is a roundup of other important news concerning the results that you might have missed.

High-profile losses

The outcome of Sunday’s vote has meant that some well-known figures are losing their congressional seats, particularly within the Popular Party (PP), which lost 71 seats on Sunday – a historically poor result for the conservative group. These include Mari Mar Blanco, sister of Miguel Ángel Blanco, a PP councilor who was kidnapped and executed by the Basque terrorist group ETA in July 1997. Blanco, who now heads the Terrorism Victims Foundation, had been a PP deputy since 2016.

Podemos candidate Rita Bosaho, Spain’s first black member of Congress, lost her seat on Sunday. Pepe Olivares

Also out is Rita Bosaho, a Podemos deputy who gained media attention in December 2015 when she became the first black person to sit inside Spanish Congress. Bosaho was running as number three for Alicante province, where Podemos only earned two seats.

No bullfighters in Congress

None of the bullfighters who were running with the PP and Vox have made it into Congress. The far-right Vox, whose defense of hunting and bullfighting has been one of its key policies, had a matador named Serafín Marín on its Barcelona list. Instead, Vox’s only seat representing Barcelona province will go to an atypical party member: Ignacio Garriga,whose father is Catalan and mother is from Equatorial Guinea.

The PP had also enlisted toreros: Salvador Vega for Málaga and Miguel Abellán for Madrid. Neither one has made it into the lower house.

Valencia election

Besides voting in the general election, residents of the Valencia region also cast their ballots for their regional representatives on Sunday. The Valencia branch of the Socialist Party, the PSPV-PSOE, received the highest number of votes, representing its first victory in 28 years in a region that had been long run by the PP. In 2015, the PP won the most seats but an alliance between the Socialists, Podemos and the regional Compromís ushered in a leftist executive. Regional premier Ximo Puig has opened talks in a bid to renew the alliance.

PSOE premier Ximo Puig celebrates after win at regional elections in Valencia. ©GTRES

Historic win in the Senate

The Socialist Party won an absolute majority in the Senate, breaking 25 years of PP control. The PSOE now holds 121 seats in the upper house, a significant rise from the 43 the party took at the 2016 polls. In addition to the senators elected by popular vote, the PSOE has 18 others who were appointed by the regional legislatures. This gives Sánchez’s party a total of 139 seats in the 266-seat Senate, where the absolute majority is 134. Not since 1993 has the PSOE been the most-voted party in the Senate.

As in Congress, the PP suffered a crushing defeat in the Senate vote, losing 74 seats to be left with just 56 seats. The remaining seats were won by the Catalan Republican Left-Sovereigntists (ERC-Sobiranistes) (11 seats), the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) (9), Ciudadanos (Citizens, 4), Navarra Suma (3), Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) (2), Gomera Socialist Group (ASG) (1) and EH Bildu (1) from the Basque Country.

Animal-rights group misses out on a seat

The Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) once again missed out on a seat in Congress. Although the group won 1.25% of the vote, the equivalent of more than 300,000 ballots, the party did not win a seat in Congress because support was spread out across the country. Spain uses the D’Hondt method of proportional representation, according to which some votes carry more weight depending on where they are cast.

PACMA office on election night. KIKE PARA EL PAÍS

“How can you justify the fact that the 50,000 people who voted for the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) have representation and the 300,000 who voted for PCMA are left out again?” asked PACMA candidate Laura Duarte.

Despite the disappointing result, the party is optimistic about their chances at the upcoming European elections.

English version by Susana Urra. </s> Spanish politics shaken by awakening of the far-right

MADRID (AP) — Spain's Socialist prime minister says he will defend the constitution and democracy against fear following a major setback to his party in a regional election that marked an awakening of the far-right.

Pedro Sanchez tweeted Monday that "my government will continue working on a regenerating and pro-European project for Spain." The anti-migrant, euroskeptic Vox party won 12 seats in the 109-member regional parliament of Andalusia, in southern Spain on Sunday.

Sanchez added that the result will "strengthen our pledge to defend the Constitution and Democracy against fear."

The Socialists won an election marked by a low participation, but face losing the regional government for the first time in 36 years if the center-right, conservative and extreme right opposition strike a deal to assemble a 59-seat majority.
The Andalusian parliament elects Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla as the next regional President with the votes of conservative party PP, liberal party Cs and far-right party Vox, ending a 36-year term, since the restoration of democracy, of social democratic PSOE government.