MADRID - Spain’s opposition conservative party retained control of Galicia, its traditional stronghold, in a tight regional election on Sunday, a boost for its under-fire leader. The Popular Party (PP) won 47.5 percent of the vote, giving it an absolute majority of 40 seats in the 75-seat regional parliament, official results with 95.5 percent of the vote counted showed. The party has governed Galicia since 2009, winning majorities in each of the last four elections under Alberto Nunez Feijoo who in 2022 left the rural northwestern region of some 2.7 million residents to become national party leader. Polls in recent weeks had suggested the race was tightening, raising the possibility that a surging left-wing nationalist BNG party and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s.
