2012 Galician regional election

2012 Galician regional election
← 2009 21 October 2012 2016 →
All 75 seats in the Parliament of Galicia
38 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered2,697,717 Green arrow up1.9%
Turnout1,481,379 (54.9%)
Red arrow down9.5 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo Pachi Vázquez Xosé Manuel Beiras
Party PP PSdeG–PSOE AGE
Leader since 15 January 2006 25 April 2009 7 September 2012
Leader's seat Pontevedra Ourense A Coruña
Last election 38 seats, 46.7% 25 seats, 31.0% 0 seats, 1.0%[a]
Seats won 41 18 9
Seat change Green arrow up3 Red arrow down7 Green arrow up9
Popular vote 661,281 297,584 200,828
Percentage 45.8% 20.6% 13.9%
Swing Red arrow down0.9 pp Red arrow down10.4 pp Green arrow up12.9 pp
  Fourth party
 
Leader Francisco Jorquera
Party BNG
Leader since 29 January 2012
Leader's seat A Coruña
Last election 12 seats, 16.0%
Seats won 7
Seat change Red arrow down5
Popular vote 146,027
Percentage 10.1%
Swing Red arrow down5.9 pp
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Galicia
President before election

Alberto Núñez Feijóo
PP

Elected President

Alberto Núñez Feijóo
PP

The 2012 Galician regional election was held on Sunday, 21 October 2012, to elect the 9th Parliament of the autonomous community of Galicia. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in the Basque Country.

President Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced the election following Lehendakari Patxi López's decision to schedule a Basque snap regional election for 21 October 2012.[1][2] The vote was seen as an electoral test on the economic policy of Mariano Rajoy's government, which had been elected at the 2011 Spanish general election and had undertaken harsh spending cuts which had seen its popularity ratings plummet in opinion polls.[3] Feijóo aimed at securing reelection for a second term in office at the helm of the regional People's Party (PP), for which he needed the party to retain the absolute majority it commanded in parliament to prevent an alternative coalition being formed between the Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG–PSOE) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG), similarly to the one in power in the 2005–2009 period.[4][5]

The election resulted in an increased majority for Feijóo, as support for both the PSdeG and BNG plunged amid internal party infighting and disillusion from left-from-centre voters.[6] The Galician Left Alternative (AGE) alliance, headed by former BNG leader Xosé Manuel Beiras and comprising United Left (EU) and Beiras's newly created party Anova, obtained a surprise result with 200,000 votes and 14% of the share, scoring in third place regionally and displacing the PSdeG in second place in the cities of A Coruña, Ferrol and Santiago de Compostela.[7] The fragmentation of the left-wing vote and the high abstention rate—with slightly over 45% of the electorate not casting a ballot—favoured the PP enlarging its majority despite seeing a drop of over 100,000 ballots from 2009.[8]


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  1. ^ "Feijóo apura el plazo para decidir si convoca las elecciones el 21-O". El País (in Spanish). 26 August 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Feijóo justifica el adelanto electoral para "no crear más inestabilidad"". El País (in Spanish). 27 August 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Rajoy se examina de sus recortes en la campaña electoral del 21-O". El País (in Spanish). 5 October 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  4. ^ "PSdeG y BNG hablan ya claramente de alcanzar un pacto de Gobierno". El Correo Gallego (in Spanish). 6 September 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Elecciones gallegas 2012: "Pachi" y Jorquera coinciden en su voluntad de reeditar el bipartito". ABC (in Spanish). 6 September 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Feijóo arrasa ante un PSOE hundido". El País (in Spanish). 21 October 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  7. ^ "AGE se impone en las urbes coruñesas". El País (in Spanish). 22 October 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Feijóo pierde 100.000 votos pero avanza favorecido por la abstención". El País (in Spanish). 22 October 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2020.