People prepare their votes at a polling station in Madrid, Spain, on May 4, 2021. The center-right Popular Party (PP) won the elections of the Autonomous Community of Madrid on Tuesday with 65 seats, more than doubling the seats it won in the 2019 elections. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua)
MADRID, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The center-right Popular Party (PP) won the elections of the Autonomous Community of Madrid on Tuesday with 65 seats, more than doubling the seats it won in the 2019 elections.
Falling short of an absolute majority, the PP's candidate and Madrid's Regional President Isabel Diaz Ayuso will be able to form a government with the help of other parties, with the far-right VOX seen as a most likely partner.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from the center left led by candidate Angel Gabilondo won 24 seats, a loss of 13 seats compared to 2019, while the leftist Mas Madrid with candidate Monica Garcia managed to add four more seats, moving from 20 to 24 seats.
VOX, which added one more seat compared to the 2019 elections, obtained 13 seats, followed in fifth place by United We Can led by former Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, who obtained 10 seats and 7.28 percent of the votes.
As indicated by polls, the centre-right Ciudadanos, which had been running the Madrid region together with the PP, has disappeared from the Madrid Assembly, as its seats were slashed from 19.4 percent of the votes in 2019 to only 3.52 percent this year, falling short of the 5 percent threshold to enter the Assembly.
The turnout was a historic 80 percent, 16 points above the 2019 elections.
Isabel Diaz Ayuso, since 2019 president of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, dismissed on March 10 the six advisers of the Citizens party in her government, ordered the dissolution of the Madrid Assembly and called elections for May 4 with the objective of stoping the threat of being evicted from power. Enditem
