Meanwhile, the far-right Vox secured 14 seats with support of 17.9 percent, double what it won in the last election in 2023 and echoing its strong performance recently in national polls.
The party campaigned hard in Aragón’s rural areas, pitching to farmers unhappy with EU regulations.
“This is not the result we wanted,” said the Socialist candidate, Pilar Alegría. “An uncertain horizon has opened up in Aragón.”
Sunday’s was the first of three elections scheduled in the coming months in PP-held regions in Spain, and will be followed by Castilla y León in March and Andalusia in June.
Both the PP and the Socialists used the regional election to discuss broader national issues.
The PP presented the election as a referendum on the tenure of Sánchez, whose coalition has been rocked by scandals affecting his party and allies. Two January train crashes that killed 47 people and triggered rail chaos around the country have compounded Sánchez’s woes.
