Spain’s PNV Wins Top Spot in Regional Election in Basque Region

(Bloomberg) -- The Basque Nationalist Party, or PNV, won the most seats in a closely followed regional Spanish election, while the conservative People’s Party won a majority in polls in Galicia.

The result Sunday gave the PNV 31 seats in the 75-member Basque parliament, or 39%, with almost all the votes counted, while the Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez won 10 seats and 14% of the vote. The PNV currently governs the Basque country with Socialist support. Left-leaning Basque nationalist party Bildu was second with 22 seats and 28%.

In a separate regional election in Galicia, the conservative People’s Party retained the government with 42 seats in the 75-member parliament, or 69% of the vote, with 98% of ballots counted . The BNG, a local nationalist Galician party, came in second with 19 seats from 24% of votes, while the Socialists were third.

The two regional elections were the first polls in Spain since the global coronavirus pandemic started.

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