Feijóo and Abascal reach a historic agreement for the Senate: Vox withdraws from six provinces and the PP from three

PP and Vox agreed to coordinate their Senate lists to concentrate right-wing votes. The pact is described as unprecedented and covers 23 constituencies. It matters because both parties want to improve their chances of winning directly elected Senate seats and strengthen their combined position.

Vox will not stand in six provinces: Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cádiz, Valencia, Castellón and Baleares. In those places, PP lists will include an independent candidate proposed by Vox. Vox will also present only one candidate in 14 other provinces, while PP keeps three candidates there.

PP makes its largest concession in Guipúzcoa, Girona and Tarragona. It will not stand there, and Vox will not include a PP-backed independent candidate. The agreement was announced just before the deadline for registering lists, with names expected later that day.

A Senate constituency in Spain is an electoral district used to choose members of the upper chamber. For most directly elected senators, the constituency is a province. The island territories and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla use different constituency arrangements.

Voters normally mark individual candidates on ballot papers. In most provinces, four senators are elected, and voters can select up to three candidates. The candidates receiving the most votes take the seats. This system can reward parties that coordinate their supporters, because spreading votes across too many candidates may weaken each candidate’s total.

The article’s pact is designed around that mechanism. Vox limits or withdraws its candidates in selected constituencies, allowing supporters to back PP candidates as well. The article does not explain the full electoral rules, but it highlights how voters can mark one Vox candidate and two PP candidates in 14 provinces.

The agreement has three distinct groups covering 23 constituencies. Vox withdraws completely in six provinces. It presents only one candidate, instead of the three normally possible, in 14 more. PP withdraws completely in the remaining three provinces.

In the six Vox withdrawal provinces, PP will include an independent candidate proposed by Vox, placed second or third on its list. In the 14 provinces where Vox presents one candidate, PP presents all three of its candidates. The article says this lets Vox voters support their own candidate and mark two PP senators.

The three PP withdrawal provinces are Guipúzcoa, Girona and Tarragona. The article says PP has never won a directly elected Senate representative there. It does not specify how many Vox candidates will stand in those three provinces, so that number cannot be given from the text.

The strategy is vote concentration. Senate voters can select individual candidates, so allied parties may gain more seats if their supporters focus votes on fewer names. Running competing candidates can divide support between PP and Vox, allowing another party’s candidates to finish ahead.

The clearest example is the 14-province arrangement. Vox presents one candidate, while PP presents three. The article says Vox supporters can choose their party’s candidate and also mark two PP candidates. In six other provinces, Vox withdraws altogether, and PP adds an independent candidate proposed by Vox to its list.

This could improve the right’s chances, but the article presents it as a political calculation rather than a guaranteed result. The agreement was intended to help secure Senate control against the PSOE and Frente Amplio alliance. Its success will depend on how voters actually use their ballots.

The two parties are seeking a strong Senate position because they face an alliance between PSOE and Frente Amplio. Their negotiations focused not only on winning seats, but also on securing enough influence to control the chamber. The article calls the pact vital to that objective.

They are also pursuing a three-fifths majority. The article gives renewal of the Constitutional Court as an example of what such a majority could enable. Under their stated goal, PP and Vox could carry out that institutional renewal without the PSOE in the negotiating equation.

The agreement therefore has consequences beyond individual provincial contests. It is a national-level coordination deal during the election campaign. Whether it delivers control or a three-fifths majority remains uncertain, since the article describes those outcomes as goals rather than achieved results.

Spain’s Senate combines two types of membership. Directly elected senators receive their mandate from voters in electoral constituencies, usually provinces. They campaign on election ballots and win according to the votes cast for individual candidates.

Autonomous-community senators are appointed by the legislatures of Spain’s regions. Each autonomous community receives a basic allocation and additional representation linked to its population. Regional parliaments choose the people who will serve, rather than citizens selecting those senators directly in a national election.

The distinction matters in the article because an early PP proposal involved compensating Vox with autonomous-community senators. That proposal would have used regional appointments as part of the negotiation. Vox did not consider it sufficient, and instead sought a more ambitious concession: PP not standing in some provinces. The final agreement does not include the proposed regional-senator exchange.

Spain’s Parliament has two chambers: the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. The Senate is the upper chamber and has a strong territorial role. It examines legislation, can propose amendments, and participates in constitutional and institutional procedures, although Congress usually has the stronger final position.

A three-fifths majority is a high threshold designed to require broad agreement. In the article, PP and Vox want that strength so they could renew the Constitutional Court without the PSOE involved in the negotiation. The exact institutional procedure is not explained in the source, but the article directly links the majority goal to that renewal.

This explains why the Senate pact matters beyond provincial seat totals. PP and Vox are coordinating candidate lists to improve their combined prospects. If the arrangement produced Senate control and enough seats, it could increase their leverage over major institutional decisions. Those outcomes remain objectives, not results reported in the article.