A stunning victory for Spain’s conservative opposition in Andalucía

.” Thus did Alberto Nuñez Feijóo salute his party-mate, Juanma Moreno, for a rampaging victory for the conservative People’s Party () in regional elections in Andalucía on June 19th. Formerly the heart of an Islamic empire, Andalucía is Spain’s second-biggest and most populous region. It has long tended to the left. The Socialists ran it from the advent of Spanish democracy in 1978 until 2019.But this time its voters gave the Socialist Party the biggest kicking it has ever had in the region, and handed the its first absolute majority in the regional assembly. The party triumphed in all eight of the region’s provinces. It won the city of Seville for the first time in any election of any sort, notes Elías Bendodo, the party’s number three. It pummelled Ciudadanos, a centre-right party that failed to win any seats at all.