Spain's conservative People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party have signed a coalition agreement in Andalucía, bringing the prospect of a national coalition closer. The deal, signed on Thursday, allows the PP to continue governing the southern region after losing its absolute majority in May's regional election.
Details of the agreement
The coalition agreement explicitly guarantees "national priority in accessing public benefits," a policy that PP regional president Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla had dismissed during the campaign as "a sensationalistic but empty slogan." The agreement also rejects the immigration policies of Spain's socialist-led central government and states that Andalucía will not accept any more unaccompanied migrant children.
Other priorities include opposing "the imposition of ideological agendas when it comes to caring for the environment," defending intensive livestock farming "in the face of criminalisation from the animal rights lobby and the climate policies developed in Brussels," and protecting bullfighting.
Historical memory law targeted
As in other regions where the PP and Vox govern together—Extremadura, Aragón, and Castilla y León—the new Andalusian government plans to overturn legislation introduced four years ago to bring "justice, reparation and dignity" to victims of the civil war and the Franco dictatorship. It intends to replace it with a so-called "harmony law," which the national government, historical memory associations, and UN experts have decried as an attempt to whitewash the Franco era.
Reactions from leaders
Moreno hailed the pact as a "sensible, fair and legal legislative agreement" that would bring four years of stability. National PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo praised Moreno's "commitment, capacity for dialogue, and vocation of service." Vox's leader in Andalucía, Manuel Gavira, who will serve as regional vice-president, said the deal would ensure a government "that defends common sense and improves the lives of the people of Andalucía."
Electoral context
May's regional election was a disaster for the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE), led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The PSOE dropped from 30 seats to 28 in the 109-seat regional parliament—its worst ever result in Andalucía. The PP, despite finishing first, decreased its seat count from 58 to 53, while Vox gained a seat to reach 15. The left-wing Adelante Andalucía party climbed from two seats to eight, and the leftist coalition Por Andalucía held its five seats.
Feijóo has repeatedly refused to rule out a national coalition with Vox. In a recent TV interview, he said he hoped to govern alone but had no intention of "demonising" Vox. "If it turns out that we need to make a deal for a coalition government, we'll sit down and we'll form a government coalition that's in line with the basic principles of our parties," he told Antena 3's El Hormiguero.
Criticism from PSOE
The PSOE's organisational secretary, Rebeca Torró, said the Andalucía deal showed there was no "moderate PP" or "hardline PP," adding: "There's only a PP that's exactly the same as Vox." She said each such alliance follows a familiar playbook: "Backward steps in equality, attacks on the rights of LGBTI people, a weakening of public services, a questioning of climate change, and the normalisation of speech that jeopardises rights and freedoms that were hard-won over the course of decades."
