MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s opposition conservative People’s Party (PP) is set to retain its absolute majority in its stronghold in the northwest region of Galicia on Sunday in a close-run regional election.
The PP is likely to have won 45.9% of the vote, which is enough to retain a majority of 39-40 representatives in the 75-seat regional assembly, according to an exit poll released by state broadcaster TVE as voting ended on Sunday evening.
The PP has ruled Galicia for all but four of the past 35 years and their leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, is a former regional government chief.
The party held an absolute majority for the past 15 years and the victory strengthens him as the country’s main opposition leader to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist-led government.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, editing by Inti Landauro and Angus MacSwan)