Spain's far-right Vox doubles its seats in Aragon regional vote

Vox's Rise in Aragon Regional Politics

MADRID, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Spain's far-right Vox party doubled its seats in Sunday's regional election in Aragon region, as a gamble by the governing conservative People's Party to call a snap election backfired.

The People's Party - which called the vote in December following failed budget negotiations, hoping to consolidate its power and dilute Vox's representation - remains the biggest party in the Aragon regional government, but will now have to rely even more on the anti-immigration movement to govern.

Vox remained the third biggest party in the region, but increased its number of seats to 14 from seven with 18% of the vote, in line with a rise in support seen across Spain ahead of general elections that must be held by August 2027.

Impact on People's Party

"What happened in Aragon shows the shape of things to come," Eurointelligence analysts said in a newsletter on Monday. "There was indeed a momentum shift to the right. But Vox was the main, and sole, beneficiary."

Socialist Party's Decline

The People's Party lost two seats in Aragon compared with the last election in 2023 and now has 26 in the 67-seat regional assembly, leaving it further away from an overall majority.

The Socialist party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez lost five seats, matching its worst result ever in the region.

His minority national government has been weakened by a series of corruption scandals in the past year.

The Socialists had the support of around 27% of the national electorate, in a poll by 40dB in mid-January, behind the PP which had 31%. Vox had 18%.

Similar Gains in Other Regions

Vox also doubled its seats in the Extremadura region in December.

(Reporting by Paolo Laudani; editing by Charlie Devereux and Andrew Heavens)