2015 Spanish regional elections


Regional elections were held in Spain during 2015 to elect the regional parliaments of fourteen of the seventeen autonomous communities: Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile and León, Castilla–La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre and the Valencian Community; and the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. 939 of 1,198 seats in the regional parliaments were up for election, as well as the 50 seats in the regional assemblies of the autonomous cities. The elections were held on 24 May and on 27 September in Catalonia.
The ruling People's Party suffered one of the harshest loss of votes for any party in the quadrennial regional elections, losing all of its absolute majorities and most of the regional administrations at stake, including notable PP strongholds such as the Valencian Community which it had held continuously since 1995. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was unable to capitalize on the PP backlash and kept losing votes from 2011. However, through post-election agreements with other left-wing parties it was able to recapture all of the regional governments it had lost four years previously, as well as gain the Valencian regional government.
The novelty of these elections was the irruption of two new parties: Podemos, a party founded in 2014 before the May European Parliament election, and Citizens, a Catalan unionist party created in 2006 to run in the Parliament of Catalonia elections. Podemos obtained a strong third place, close to the two main parties in several regions and entering all regional parliaments—a first for any party aside from PP and PSOE—while C's placed fourth in most regions, being left out of regional assemblies in the Canary Islands, Castilla–La Mancha and Navarre.

Election date

Determination of election day varied depending on the autonomous community. Typically, most autonomous communities held their elections on the fourth Sunday of May every four years, concurrently with nationwide local elections, while others had their own, separate electoral cycles. In some cases, regional presidents had the prerogative to dissolve parliament and call for extra elections at a different time, but newly elected assemblies were restricted to serving out what remained of their previous four year-terms without altering the period to their next ordinary election. In other cases—Andalusia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Castile and León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Navarre and the Valencian Community —the law granted regional presidents the power to call snap elections resulting in fresh four-year parliamentary terms.

Regional governments

The following table lists party control in autonomous communities and cities. Gains for a party are highlighted in that party's colour.

Summary by region