A regional election was held in Castile and León on 13 February 2022 to elect the 11th of the autonomous community. All 81 seats in the were up for election. This marked the first time that a Castilian-Leonese president exercised the legal prerogative to call a snap election.
The previous election had seen a victory for the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) for the first time since 1983, but the ruling People's Party (PP) was able to elect its candidate, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, as new regional president by forming a coalition with the liberal Citizens (Cs). Despite this arrangement, tensions soon began to emerge between the two governing partners over the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. In March 2021, a PSOE-tabled vote of no confidence was defeated, but it indirectly led to the defection of one Cs legislator to the opposition, leaving the PP–Cs government in minority status. Subsequently, rumours rose on the possibility of Mañueco planning an early election to be held at some point between the winter of 2021 and the spring of 2022, after having grown tired of the coalition as well as to take advantage of the PP's "honeymoon" in opinion polls following the Madrilenian election in May. On 20 December 2021, Mañueco expelled Cs from his government and called the election for 13 February 2022, catching his coalition partner off-guard, with his (now former) deputy Francisco Igea learning of it during a live interview.
Results on election night were dubbed by most media as a pyrrhic victory for the PP, which failed to materialize early expectations of a landslide win in a historical stronghold, and instead ended up obtaining its worst result ever in both votes and vote share in the region, as well as a very close result with the PSOE, which was able to secure a stronger-than-expected performance, despite losing ground compared to 2019. The vote share for Cs collapsed and the party was barely able to retain Igea's seat in Valladolid but was successful in its primary goal of preventing a total wipeout. The far-right Vox party secured its best result in an autonomous community election in Spain up until that point, with 17.6% of the vote share and 13 seats. Unidas Podemos underperformed opinion polls, whereas regionalist Leonese People's Union (UPL) and For Ávila (XAV) secured their best results to date. Soria Now (SY)—a social platform aligned to the Empty Spain movement—won in the Soria constituency in a landslide. Together, both PP and Vox commanded a majority of 44 out of 81 seats, and formed a coalition government.
Overview Under the 2007 Statute of Autonomy, the Cortes of Castile and León was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a regional president.. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions..
Date The term of the of Castile and León expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of Castile and León (BOCYL), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.; ( by ). The previous election was held on 26 May 2019, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 26 May 2023. The election decree was required to be published in the BOCYL no later than 2 May 2023, setting the latest possible date for election day on 25 June 2023.
The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the of Castile and León at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur either during the first legislative session or before one year after a previous one.; . In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the were to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called..
By 2021, the relationship between the two ruling coalition partners, the People's Party (PP) and Citizens (Cs) had become strained to the point that President Alfonso Fernández Mañueco was considering to call a snap election for late in the year or early 2022, taking advantage of the momentum gained by the PP in opinion polls as a result of its victory in the 2021 Madrilenian regional election. Mañueco was also wary that the Cs internal crisis, which had seen a number of defections from the party, could see a successful motion of no confidence being mounted on him once the PSOE was able to table a new censure motion in March 2022, one year after a previous, unsuccessful one. In October 2021, it was hinted that Mañueco was considering an election to be held on either 28 November or 12 December, though it later transpired that an election in the spring of 2022 was more likely. Speculation on an early election in Andalusia, coupled with possible snap elections in other regions—such as Aragon or the Valencian Community—initially hinted at a possible simultaneous electoral call, but Andalusian president Juan Manuel Moreno's announcement on 30 November that an election in Andalusia would not be held sooner than June 2022 meant that any prospective Castilian-Leonese snap election would be held earlier. This was finally confirmed on 20 December 2021 when Mañueco announced a snap election for 13 February 2022.
The of Castile and León was officially dissolved on 21 December 2021 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOCYL, setting election day for 13 February 2022 and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 10 March..
Electoral system Voting for the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Castile and León and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence.; ( by ). Additionally, non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting, a system known as "begged" voting ()..
The of Castile and León had three seats per each multi-member constituency—corresponding to the provinces of Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora—plus one additional seat per 45,000 inhabitants or fraction above 22,500. All were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.; . The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each constituency was entitled the following seats:.
Seats Constituencies 15 Valladolid 13 León 11 Burgos 10 Salamanca 7 Ávila, Palencia, Zamora 6 Segovia 5 Soria
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes. ( by ).
Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.
+ Parliamentary composition in December 2021 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 35 35 People's Parliamentary Group PP 29 29 Citizens's Parliamentary Group Cs 11 11 Mixed Group Podemos 2 5 Vox 1 UPL 1 XAV 1 Non-Inscrits INDEP 1 1
Parties and candidates The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list. ( by ). Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition..
Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election:
Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE Luis Tudanca Social democracy 34.8% PP Alfonso Fernández Mañueco ConservatismChristian democracy 31.5% Cs Francisco Igea Liberalism 14.9% Podemos–IU–AV Pablo Fernández Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism 7.3% Vox Juan García-Gallardo Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 5.5% UPL Luis Mariano Santos LeonesismRegionalismAutonomism 2.0% XAV Pedro Pascual Regionalism 0.7% EV–SY Ángel Ceña LocalismRuralism colspan="2" In September 2021, citizen collectives of the so-called "Empty Spain" ( or España Vaciada), a coined term to refer to Spain's rural and largely unpopulated interior provinces, agreed to look for formulas to contest the next elections in Spain, inspired by the success of the Teruel Existe candidacy (Spanish for "Teruel Exists") in the November 2019 general election. By November 2021, it was confirmed that over 160 collectives and associations from about 30 Spanish provinces had committed themselves to finalizing the electoral platform before January 2022, and that it would be ready to contest any snap election in Castile and León. This was confirmed following Mañueco's announcement of the election date for 13 February 2022, with the Soria Now! (), Burgos Roots () platforms confirming their participation. On 27 December, Clean Plateau () and Aprodespa announced a candidacy of the Empty Spain in the province of Palencia, with a candidacy for Salamanca being announced the next day, and for Valladolid on 10 January. However, the platform ruled out standing in Ávila, León, Segovia and Zamora.
Campaign Timetable The key dates are listed below (all times are CET):
20 December: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the president, after deliberation in the Regional Government. 21 December: Formal dissolution of parliament and start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects. 24 December: Initial constitution of provincial and zone electoral commissions with judicial members. 27 December: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations. 31 December: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances. 3 January: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections. 10 January: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists. 12 January: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official Gazette of Castile and León (BOCyL); deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to communicate their presidential candidates for the purpose of electoral debates. 15 January: Deadline for non-resident citizens (electors residing abroad (CERA) and citizens temporarily absent from Spain) to apply for voting. 17 January: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists. 18 January: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the BOCyL. 19 January: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition. 27 January: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to provincial and zone electoral commissions. 28 January: Official start of electoral campaigning.. 3 February: Deadline to apply for postal voting. 8 February: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail. 9 February: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting .