A regional election was held in Extremadura on 21 December 2025 to elect the 12th Assembly of the autonomous community. All 65 seats in the Assembly were up for election. This marked the first time that an Extremaduran president exercised the legal prerogative to call a snap election.
The 2023 election had seen the People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party form a coalition under the presidency of MarÃÂa Guardiola, but not before she was forced to backtrack after having pledged not to let the latter into her cabinet. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), who was ousted from power only for the second time in history, saw a leadership change from Guillermo Fernández VaraâÂÂwho died from stomach cancer in October 2025âÂÂto the then-president of the provincial deputation of Badajoz, Miguel ÃÂngel Gallardo. The PPâÂÂVox coalition collapsed in July 2024 over a strategic movement from the latter's national leadership, with Guardiola leading a minority government from that point onwards. Amid growing tensions with Vox, unable to pass her 2026 budget through parliament and seeking to capitalize on various corruption probes affecting the national government under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Guardiola called an early election in what became the first of a series of regional elections held in PP-controlled regions.
Political stability and the continuity of the Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant were seen as key themes going into the election and in ensuing negotiations. The campaign was shaken by a string of sexual misconduct allegationsâÂÂparticularly the Salazar affair affecting the ruling PSOE in Spain, and accusations against Guardiola's official driver and the PP's local mayor in Navalmoral de la MataâÂÂas well as by a theft in a postal office that saw the PP spread suspicions of electoral fraud. The election resulted in the PSOE's worst historical result in the region, with the demobilization of part of its electorate as it lost 10 of its 28 seats, in what was attributed both to a punishment of Gallardo and to growing discontent with Sánchez's national government. Guardiola's PP, while having a strong performance, fell well short of its goal of securing an overall majority of 33, remaining dependant on support from a resurgent Vox, which doubled its results. The left-wing United for Extremadura alliance, comprising Podemos and allies of Sumar (PSOE's ruling partner in Spain), benefitted from the Socialist collapse and obtained its best historical result. The combined vote for right-wing parties was 60%, which was the highest in history, albeit under the lowest voter turnout since the first regional election in 1983.
A political deadlock ensued as government formation negotiations between PP and Vox failed to deliver a deal, resulting in a failed investiture attempt by Guardiola in March 2026. As a result, the scenario of a repeat election taking place in 28 JuneâÂÂif no government is elected before 4 MayâÂÂremains a possibility.
The 2023 regional election saw a parliamentary majority for the People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party, despite the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) remaining the largest overall. PP candidate MarÃÂa Guardiola's initial refusal to form a coalition government with Vox led to several weeks of public clashesâÂÂseeing Guardiola herself proclaiming that she could not allow "those who deny gender-based violence, who use bold strokes, dehumanize immigrants and display a banner on which they throw the LGTBI flag into a trash can" into her governmentâÂÂand in the PSOE and United for Extremadura (the alliance between Podemos and United Left) retaining control of the Assembly's bureau as the PP and Vox voted for their own candidates. Ultimately, Guardiola was forced to U-turn and form a PPâÂÂVox cabinet by her own party's national leadership, then embroiled in the 23 July 2023 general election campaign. This political episode was said to have contributed to the PP's failure to meet expectations in the general election by evidencing the party's willingness to allow the far-right into government despite public pledges to the contrary.
Guillermo Fernández Vara, who had been president of Extremadura from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2023, announced his withdrawal from regional politics after failing to secure investiture, being proposed as a senator instead. In December 2023, Vara announced that he was suffering from stomach cancer, which ultimately led to his death in October 2025. Miguel ÃÂngel Gallardo, president of the provincial deputation of Badajoz and regarded as a critic of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's leadership, was elected in March 2024 as Vara's successor at the helm of the regional PSOE branch. In May 2025, Gallardo was indicted on charges of perverting the course of justice and influence peddling related to the allegedly illegal hiring in 2017 of Sánchez's brother in the deputation he presided over. He denied any wrongdoing and suggested that he was the target of a lawfare campaign, but his public standing was damaged by his seeking of parliamentary immunity, in a move that the High Court of Justice of Extremadura deemed to be law evasion.
On 11 July 2024, Vox's national leader Santiago Abascal forced the break up of all PPâÂÂVox regional governments over a controversy regarding the nationwide distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors among the autonomous communities. Vox's single regional minister in Guardiola's cabinet, Ignacio Higuero, quit the party in order to preserve his office, though his involvement in a resume padding scandal eventually led to his resignation in August 2025. Budget negotiations in the autumn of 2025 hinted at the possibility of Guardiola calling a snap election for early next year in the event of a parliamentary deadlock, which she ultimately did in an attempt to take advantage of internal polling showing a weak opposition.
Under the 2011 Statute of Autonomy, the Assembly of Extremadura was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a regional president.
Voting for the Assembly was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Extremadura and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final court ruling.
The Assembly of Extremadura had a maximum of 65 seats, with the electoral law fixing its size at that number. All were elected in two multi-member constituenciesâÂÂcorresponding to the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 20 seats and the remaining 25 distributed in proportion to populationâÂÂusing the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. Alternatively, parties could also enter the seat distribution as long as they ran candidates in both constituencies and reached five percent regionally.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Assembly constituency was entitled the following seats:
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.
The term of the Assembly of Extremadura expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Extremadura (DOE), with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 28 May 2023, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 28 May 2027. The election decree was required to be published in the DOE no later than 4 May 2027, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on 27 June 2027.
The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Assembly of Extremadura at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.
The political deadlock resulting from the 2023 election result, in which no single party secured an absolute majority of seats, was briefly commented as potentially leading to a repeat election as PP's MarÃÂa Guardiola opposed letting the far-right Vox into government. Guardiola eventually bowed to political pressure from her party at the national level and signed a coalition agreement with Vox, being elected as regional president on 14 July 2023 and dashing any prospect of an imminent early election. The possibility of an early election call was again floated in late 2024, after Vox's split with her government left Guardiola in a minority and unable to get her 2025 budget passed through parliament, but this attempt ultimately failed to materialize.
Guardiola threatened in September 2025 with a snap election if opposition parties blocked her government's 2026 budget. Speculation then emerged that the national leadership of the People's Party (PP) was planning to advance the elections in Aragon and Extremadura (and possibly the Balearic Islands) to make them take place near or concurrently with the Castilian-Leonese election scheduled for early 2026. While the alleged justification would be the regional governments' failure to approve their 2026 budgets, the true motive was attributed to PP plansâÂÂnot without riskâÂÂto turn the simultaneous election call into a referendum on the national government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The regional PP ruled out any plans for a joint election call and defended their president's "full freedom" to make her independent decisions. After PSOE and Vox hinted at voting down Guardiola's budget, she announced the parliament's dissolution on 27 October, with the election being scheduled for 21 December 2025.
The Assembly of Extremadura was officially dissolved on 28 October 2025 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOE, setting election day for 21 December.
The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least two percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. Amendments to the electoral law in 2024 increased requirements for a balanced composition of men and women in the electoral lists through the use of a zipper system.
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:
The key dates are listed below (all times are CET):
RTVE proposed holding an election debate between the main candidates of the parties with parliamentary representation. Regional president MarÃÂa Guardiola rejected attending after criticizing the invitation as a "political strategy" by the government of Spain, but PSOE, Vox and UxE confirmed their participation, with the debate being scheduled regardless of Guardiola's participation. On 4 December, the PP confirmed that no party member would attend the debate.
The tables below list opinion polling results in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll.
The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 33 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Assembly of Extremadura.
The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.
The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.
The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.
The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become president of the Regional Government of Extremadura.
The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood for each leader to become president.
The table below shows registered voter turnout on election day, without including non-resident citizens.
Opinion poll sources
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