Survey Galicia: Rueda would expand his absolute majority and the PP would only surpass BNG and PSOE together

The parliamentary process for government formation in Galicia after the 2024 regional elections has been completely closed since April 2024. The Parliament of Galicia held the investiture debate and elected Alfonso Rueda as president of the Xunta, who took office a few days later and proceeded to appoint his Government. As of July 25, 2026, Galicia is already in a phase of ordinary functioning of the legislature, with a fully operational Executive and a Parliament focused on its oversight and legislative production work.

From the elections to the investiture

After the 2024 regional elections, the new Parliament of Galicia was constituted and its Board was elected, which formally allowed the investiture procedure to begin, in accordance with the Statute of Autonomy and the Chamber's Rules (available through the Parliament of Galicia website).

The Presidency of the Parliament proposed Alfonso Rueda, leader of the PPdeG and head of the majority force, as candidate for the Presidency of the Xunta. With that proposal, the investiture plenary was convened.

According to the official note from the Xunta, in the second session of the investiture debate, on April 11, 2024, “the Parliament of Galicia has elected Alfonso Rueda as president of the Xunta” (Xunta note on the election). With that vote, the strictly parliamentary phase of the president's designation was completed.

Swearing-in and closing of the investiture procedure

After the vote in Parliament, the next step was the formal appointment as president of the Xunta by royal decree of the King and its publication in the BOE and the Official Gazette of Galicia (DOG). Institutionally, this milestone is visualized in the swearing-in ceremony, held on April 13, 2024, whose full speech is recorded in the swearing-in speech.

At that moment, the core of the investiture procedure can be considered concluded: Parliament has already granted its confidence and the candidate has formally assumed the office of president.

Formation of the Galician Government

The final stage of the government formation process was the appointment of the rest of the Consello da Xunta. According to the official note of April 14, 2024, “the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda Valenzuela, signed today the decree appointing the members of the Executive” (appointment of the Galician Government), which details the list of ministries and their holders.

These decrees are published in the DOG, which acts as the official bulletin of the autonomous community, where all appointments and dismissals can be consulted (Official Gazette of Galicia).

With the publication of these appointments, the new autonomous Government resulting from the 2024 elections was fully formed. Since then, the Xunta has been acting in full capacity, no longer bound to any “caretaker government” regime associated with the electoral cycle.

Current situation (July 2026)

As of today, the investiture and government formation phase of 2024 is a completely concluded process and situated in the past of the legislature. The information available in media and subsequent political analyses reinforces the idea of a stable legislature in Galicia, with the PP maintaining the absolute majority won in 2024, as reflected in various subsequent polls cited by the newspaper Demócrata.

Demócrata's own coverage of other investiture processes in Spain recalls that Feijóo, for example, attended Alfonso Rueda's swearing-in in 2024, as part of the national projection of Galician leadership, within a chronicle about internal dynamics of the PP in other communities (Demócrata chronicle).

In summary, regarding the specific question:

• The parliamentary investiture phase ended on April 11, 2024, with the election of Alfonso Rueda as president of the Xunta.
• The institutional swearing-in phase took place on April 13, 2024.
• The complete formation of the Government was closed with the appointment of conselleiros on April 14, 2024.

Therefore, from the parliamentary procedure perspective, there is no longer any “open” phase of government formation derived from the 2024 regional elections; what exists is an ongoing legislature, with the usual dynamics of government and opposition in the Parliament of Galicia.

The Statute of Autonomy for Galicia assigns the President of the Xunta a set of functions that combine the leadership of the autonomous Government with the institutional representation of Galicia and the State in the Community. According to the statutory text, the President directs and coordinates the action of the Xunta, promulgates Galician laws in the name of the King, and holds both the representation of the Autonomous Community and the ordinary representation of the State in Galicia. He is elected by the Galician Parliament from among its members, appointed by the King, and is politically responsible before the Chamber.

Institutional position of the President

The Statute establishes that the powers of the Autonomous Community are exercised through the Parliament, the Xunta, and its President, thus configuring the President as one of Galicia's basic institutions. Within this institutional framework, the President exercises a dual representation:

• Representation of Galicia: he holds the representation of the Autonomous Community in its relations with other institutions and third parties.
• Ordinary representation of the State in Galicia: he acts as the ordinary representative of the State in Galician territory, under the terms set by the Statute itself.

Government functions and relationship with the Xunta

Within the internal scope of the autonomous Executive, the Statute clearly defines the President's role regarding the Xunta de Galicia:

• Direction and coordination of the Government: “the President directs and coordinates the action of the Xunta,” placing him as head of the collegiate government body.
• Appointment and dismissal of Government members: the vice presidents and conselleiros of the Xunta “shall be appointed and dismissed by the President,” giving him decisive control over the Executive's composition.
• Joint political responsibility: although the Xunta is politically responsible jointly before the Parliament, the President assumes a singular responsibility, as the Statute specifically provides for his political responsibility before the Chamber.

Additionally, the Statute itself refers to a Galician law to determine in greater detail the “personal statute and powers of the President,” allowing the development and specification of his competencies in ordinary autonomous legislation.

Normative competencies and relationship with the Parliament

The link with the Galician Parliament is central in defining the President's competencies:

• Promulgation of Galician laws: Galician laws “shall be promulgated in the name of the King by the President of the Xunta” and published in the Official Gazette of Galicia and the Official State Bulletin. This promulgation is a key act, as it gives final effectiveness to autonomous norms.
• Parliamentary election: the President is elected by the Parliament of Galicia from among its members. The candidate presents his program before the Plenary and, to be elected, must obtain:
  • Absolute majority in the first vote; or
  • Simple majority in a second vote, twenty-four hours later, if the absolute majority is not achieved.
  If the necessary majority is not obtained, successive proposals are processed in the same manner.
• Political responsibility before the Chamber: the Statute indicates that “the President of the Xunta shall be politically responsible before the Parliament,” and a Galician law must specify the scope of this responsibility (motions of censure, vote of confidence, etc.).

Appointment, dismissal, and guarantees

The statutory procedure completes the President's position with rules on his appointment, dismissal, and legal-penal situation:

• Appointment by the King: once elected by Parliament, the President of the Xunta is formally appointed by the King, consistent with the organic law character of the Statute.
• Causes for dismissal of the Xunta linked to the President: the Xunta ceases, among other cases, “in cases of loss of parliamentary confidence, resignation, and death of its President.” Resignation or loss of confidence in the President therefore leads to the dismissal of the entire Government.
• Caretaker government: in these cases, the outgoing Xunta continues in office until the new Xunta takes office, with a caretaker President whose scope is limited according to development legislation.
• Immunity and criminal protection regime: the Statute establishes that the President and other members of the Xunta cannot be arrested or detained for criminal acts committed in Galicia, except in cases of flagrante delicto. Decisions on their indictment, imprisonment, prosecution, and trial correspond to the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia, and outside Galicia, to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.

Normative reference

All these competencies and functions are found in Organic Law 1/1981, of April 6, Statute of Autonomy for Galicia, published in the Official State Bulletin, accessible in this text of the Statute of Galicia.

Alfonso Rueda arrives at the Presidency of the Xunta after a career closely linked from a very young age to the Galician PP and the autonomous Administration, where he climbed from technical and local positions to occupy the General Secretariat of the PPdeG and, later, the Consellería de Presidencia in Alberto Núñez Feijóo's governments. Before becoming president, he combined top internal party positions with executive responsibilities in the Xunta, especially in the area of local administration and political coordination of the Galician Government. He also gained experience in municipal administration as secretary in Cambados, which strengthened his profile as a manager of the PP's territorial power in Galicia. From these steps, he consolidated his position as Feijóo's number two, which explains why he was the natural successor when Feijóo moved to national politics.

Early steps and link with the Galician PP

According to the report by the newspaper Demócrata on the evolution of the PPdeG, Rueda joined the party through Novas Xeracións, the popular youth organization in Galicia. That same article explains that about twenty years ago (around the mid-2000s) he already knew the party “thoroughly” and was part of the core that advocated internal renewal in the post-Manuel Fraga stage, when the PP had lost the Xunta and was going through what some leaders describe as a “desert crossing.” This internal trajectory in the PPdeG is detailed in this Demócrata analysis.

Career in the autonomous and local Administration

Before becoming a visible political reference, Rueda developed a technical and managerial career in the Galician Administration. The same Demócrata report indicates that, before 2006, he had “passed through the autonomous Administration as a mid-level official under Jesús Palmou,” then number two of the PPdeG and conselleiro of Justice in Fraga's governments. In that context, Rueda worked with Palmou in his cabinet and became director general of local Administration, a key position for the Xunta's relationship with municipalities.

At the same time, the article highlights that in that stage Rueda served as municipal secretary in Cambados, which reinforced his knowledge of the Galician local world and municipal power, one of the axes of territorial implantation of the PPdeG. This experience in local and autonomous administration forms the core of his managerial profile before making the leap to the party's front political line.

Secretary General of the PPdeG and Feijóo's number two

Alfonso Rueda's big political leap occurred in 2006, at the congress where Alberto Núñez Feijóo assumed leadership of the Galician PP. According to the account of that process in Demócrata, Feijóo asked Jesús Palmou for advice to choose his number two and the operation ended in a “direct transfer between secretaries general”: Rueda accepted to be secretary general of the PPdeG and became the main collaborator of the new leader.

In Rueda's own words, collected in that same report, he accepted the position because he understood it was a moment when “very few people believed it was worth betting” on that project, and that his decision was “almost a matter of commitment and personal bet.” Since then, Rueda has acted as the organizational architect of the PPdeG, responsible for “stitching” the party and maintaining internal unity during the years of opposition and in the subsequent recovery of the Xunta in 2009.

Conselleiro de Presidencia in Feijóo's governments

After the absolute majority of 2009, Rueda took the next step: entering the Galician Government. Although the sources consulted do not detail all portfolio changes, they do confirm that he was conselleiro de Presidencia in the governments presided over by Feijóo. A Demócrata report on the conviction of a former high-ranking autonomous official recalls that, between 2009 and 2013, Norberto Uzal was director general of local Administration “during his management in the Xunta, Feijóo was president and Alfonso Rueda was conselleiro de Presidencia,” as recorded in this piece.

The Consellería de Presidencia is the department that traditionally coordinates the Government's action, relations with other administrations, and much of the Xunta's institutional architecture. That position placed Rueda in the core of Galician autonomous power, consolidating his managerial profile and his role as Feijóo's right hand, halfway between the party and the Executive.

Bridge to the Presidency of the Xunta

When Feijóo moved to national politics, Rueda's previous accumulation of responsibilities — general management, Secretary General of the PPdeG, and Consellería de Presidencia — made him the natural successor at the head of the Xunta. The official Xunta note on his election limits itself to recording the investiture, without detailing all his previous positions in that piece, but the set of information from Demócrata and the administration itself draws a clear itinerary: from mid-level cadres of the administration and party to organizational strategist of the PPdeG and, finally, to key conselleiro in Feijóo's governments, before assuming the Presidency in 2024.

No more detailed information is available in the consulted sources about other possible intermediate positions (for example, specific stages as vice president of the Xunta or specific functions in Parliament) prior to his appointment as president; the clear image is that of a long career, closely linked to the structure of the Galician PP and the management of the Xunta's institutional apparatus.