MADRID, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The center-right Popular Party (PP) led by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy saw its majority increase at the regional election in his hometown Galicia on Sunday.
The vote in Galicia had been seen as a vote of confidence in Rajoy's policy of fiscal and labor reform.
Alberto Feijoo of the PP leader was re-elected as president of the region with an increased majority of 41 seats, three more than the 38 his party won in 2009.
The Galician vote was characterized by another electoral failure by the Socialists, who lost seven seats and saw their vote slashed, while the more radical left wing party EU-Anova came from nowhere to win nine seats and become the third force in the region ahead of Galician nationalist BNG.
Meanwhile, the PP as well as the Socialist (PSOE) saw their support dwindling in the Basque region, while the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the left wing nationalist coalition were the clear winners of the night.
The PSOE lost nine seats in the 75 seat Basque parliament (an 11.6 percent fall in votes), dropping from 25 to just 16 seats, while the PP presence dropped from 13 to 10 seats.
The big winners on the night were Bildu and the party that was standing in its first regional elections took 21 seats, including three it won from the more conservative PNV, who are nevertheless the biggest force in the region with 27 seats.
Although they have different agendas in some social issues, everything points to PNV and Bildu forming a coalition government with a powerful nationalist majority and agenda.
PNV leader Inigo Urkullu will replace Socialist Patxi Lopez as "Lehendakai" (or Basque President) and highlighted that a year from the permanent ceasefire announced by Basque separatist group ETA, these elections had taken place "in total freedom."
With nationalist feeling also rising in Catalonia, where there are elections in November, that could present a serious problem for the central government in Madrid.
Votes in both Galicia and the Basque region were characterized by a fall in turnout, by around 2 percent in the Basque country, although the province of Gipuzkoa, where Bildu are strongest saw an increased number of voters.
The voter turnout fall was much steeper in Galicia, where the number of people at the polls dropped by around seven percent and despite their increased majority, the PP actually polled around 150,000 fewer votes.
The trend is worrisome that increasing numbers of Spaniards are clearly losing faith in traditional politics and that could pose problems for Rajoy in the short to medium term.
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