Spain’s Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) took a heavy hit in the regional election in Extremadura. The party lost 10 of its 28 seats. Meanwhile, the far-right Vox party doubled its seats from five to 11. Extremadura, once a stronghold for the left, is now led by the conservative People’s Party (PP) under María Guardiola. She called snap elections after Vox rejected her budget. But the PP missed an absolute majority by four seats, forcing a shaky coalition with Vox again. Voter turnout was low. PSOE lost 108,000 votes which mostly shifted to Vox and United for Extremadura (UxE), a left-wing group linked to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition. UxE increased its seats from four to seven. The result also hurts the PP, which tries to avoid close ties with Vox to keep centrist voters. In regions where PP and Vox govern together, like Aragón and Valencia, Vox has often been unreliable. A survey by eldiario.es shows Vox’s main supporters in Extremadura are men aged 35 to 54, not just young men as commonly thought. PSOE’s candidate Miguel Ángel Gallardo now faces trial for influence-peddling and abuse of office over a job given to the prime minister’s brother. Gallardo and David Sánchez, the brother, deny the charges. Other senior PSOE members like Santos Cerdán and José Luis Ábalos also face corruption accusations but deny wrongdoing. After past scandals hurt the PP government led by Mariano Rajoy, Vox has tried to market itself as honest. But even Vox’s youth group, Revuelta, faces charges over missing funds collected for flood victims in Valencia in October 2024.