2023 Spanish regional elections
Regional elections were held in Spain during 2023 to elect the regional parliaments of twelve of the seventeen autonomous communities: Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla–La Mancha, Extremadura, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre and the Valencian Community; and the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. 736 of 1,211 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 28 May.
The results produced a landslide victory for the right-of-centre political forces, erasing all the gains made by the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in 2015 and 2019. The right-wing bloc recovered power in several regions and even broke through progressive strongholds such as Extremadura, with the PSOE only holding power in Castilla–La Mancha, Asturias and Navarre. This outcome prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election.
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, the Canary Islands, 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.By the time of the 2023 regional elections, this prerogative had been exercised by Castile and León by holding a snap regional election on 13 February 2022. The Valencian Community, which had its electoral cycle separated from other regions in April 2019, brought it back to May in 2023.