The elections in Castilla y León are largely contested outside the large cities. The more than 2,500 small municipalities that form the rural map of the community continue to be one of the great determinants of the electoral result.
For decades, this territory has functioned as one of the most solid electoral strongholds of the Popular Party in Spain, thanks to a very consolidated support network in towns and regions.
However, in the last electoral cycles that dominance has progressively begun to fragment.
More than 2,500 towns that mark the result
Castilla y León is the autonomous community with the largest number of municipalities in Spain, with more than 2,200 town councils, most of them of small size.
In many cases, it is about localities with fewer than 500 inhabitants, but that together represent a very relevant part of the provincial vote that determines the distribution of procurators.
This weight is especially important because the autonomous electoral system distributes seats by provinces, which means that the behavior of the rural vote has a great influence on the final result.
The historic electoral bastion of the Popular Party
Since the nineties, the rural vote has been one of the pillars of the electoral dominance of the Popular Party in Castile and León.
For decades, the PP has achieved very broad results in small towns and agricultural and livestock regions, which has allowed it to compensate for tighter results in cities like Valladolid, Burgos or León.
This pattern has been one of the keys to the political control of the Junta for long periods.
The fragmentation of the rural vote
In recent years, that electoral map has begun to change. The emergence of new parties and territorial platforms has introduced more competition in rural areas that were previously clearly aligned with the PP.
Among the formations that have gained presence, stand out:
- Vox, which has managed to penetrate part of the rural conservative electorate.
- UPL (Leonese People's Union), with strong presence in León.
- Soria ¡Ya!, which has capitalized on the discontent over depopulation in the province.
- Por Ávila, with presence in its territory.
This phenomenon has caused that the rural vote is no longer so concentrated as in the past.
Depopulation and territory: the topics that weigh in the countryside
The electoral behavior in the towns of Castilla y León is very marked by territorial and demographic issues. Among the issues that most influence the rural vote are depopulation, the lack of public services, infrastructures, rural healthcare, connectivity, and transport
It is the factor of 'emptied' Spain, whose whose issues have been taken advantage of by regionalist parties to gain support in areas that previously voted predominantly for national parties.
A key factor for forming government
For all this, the rural vote is once again one of the great battlefields of the elections in Castile and Leon.
Although cities concentrate a great deal of media attention, the final result usually depends on how the votes are distributed in hundreds of small municipalities, where differences of a few hundred ballots can end up deciding a representative in each province.
In a community with strong territorial dispersion and a provincial electoral system, the towns continue to be decisive in determining who governs the Junta.