A regional election was held in Castile and León on 15 March 2026 to elect the 12th of the autonomous community. All 82 seats in the were up for election.
In the aftermath of the previous election held in 2022, the People's Party (PP) under Alfonso Fernández Mañueco reached a coalition agreement with the far-right Vox party, the first up until that point, and which would be mirrored in other regions and city councils following the 2023 local and regional elections. All PP–Vox regional coalitions collapsed in July 2024 over a strategic movement from the latter's national leadership, with Mañueco leading a minority government from that point onwards. The leader of the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Luis Tudanca, was replaced in his post by Soria mayor Carlos Martínez in January 2025, while Vox's regional leader and former regional vice president, Juan García-Gallardo, resigned from his posts in February 2025, citing disagreements with the party's national leadership.
Population decline and ageing and the regional government's management of the August 2025 Spanish wildfires were seen as key themes going into the election, as well as the PP's uninterrupted 39-year period in power in the region. Also featuring in the campaign was the onset of the 2026 Iran war, which saw the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, champion a "no to war" position centered around de-escalation, respect for international law and a rejection of the United States's use of joint military bases at Rota and Morón to carry out attacks on Iran; this led to a direct clash with U.S. President Donald Trump, with the latter threatening to sever Spain–U.S. trade relations. The campaign ended with PP and Vox openly clashing over the right-wing vote, with the latter refusing to cast itself as a junior partner to a prospective PP government while suffering from a series of internal purges of high-profile members.
The election resulted in a new victory for Mañueco's PP, which fell short of an overall majority to govern alone and remained dependant on Vox's support. Conversely, the PSOE under Martínez saw an unexpected growth in votes and seats—reversing a negative trend that saw it collect adverse outcomes in Extremadura and Aragon—a result which was attributed to Martínez's profile and a last-hour mobilization of left-wing voters due to the party's anti-war stance. Vox made modest gains, but underperformed expectations of overcoming 20 percent of the vote, which media attributed to the party's internal conflicts, its stance to block government negotiations in Extremadura and Aragon, and its explicit support for Trump's actions in the Middle East. Parties to the left of the PSOE, United Left and Podemos, fell below expectations and failed to secure the single seat elected under the Unidas Podemos alliance in the 2022 election, whereas the liberal Citizens was left out of parliament.
Background As a result of the 2022 regional election, the People's Party (PP) under Alfonso Fernández Mañueco formed a coalition government with the far-right Vox party under Juan García-Gallardo, the first of its kind at regional level in Spain.
In January 2023 as part of their coalition agreement including pro-natalist initiatives to combat the region's population decline and ageing, the regional government announced a plan that required health professionals to offer pregnant women seeking abortion the opportunity to listen to the fetal heartbeat, 4D ultrasound scans, and psychological counseling. The political backlash—which saw the Spanish government under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez threatening to appeal the issue to the Constitutional Court of Spain—forced Mañueco to partially drop the plan and announce that its measures would not be actively offered by doctors, but rather made available to women upon request. Despite risking breaking up the coalition over the issue, the PP rejected subsequent Vox attempts to revive this anti-abortion plan, regarding them as controversial.
The PP–Vox coalition was terminated in July 2024 when Vox's national leader, Santiago Abascal, forced the break up of all their regional governments over a controversy regarding the nationwide distribution of unaccompanied migrant minors among the autonomous communities. Culture minister Gonzalo Santonja refused to quit the government and left Vox, whereas the industry and agriculture ministers, Mariano Veganzones and Gerardo Dueñas respectively, were removed despite having voiced their will to stay on. In February 2025, García-Gallardo resigned from his posts, citing disagreements with Vox's national leadership.
The regional government came under criticism for the delay in the activation and deployment of firefighting teams during the summer 2022 wildfires, which saw over 60,000 hectare burning in the Sierra de la Culebra. Then during the August 2025 Spanish wildfires, which affected the provinces of León (particularly the Las Médulas historic gold-mining site) and Zamora the most, the regional PP administration was again criticized over the deficiency of fire prevention systems, the paralysis of fire control resources and a slow response capacity, as well as for crisis management that saw it attempting to deflect the blame on the national government under Prime Minister Sánchez (despite both forest and fire management being a regional responsibility).
The opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) saw a leadership change in January 2025, when long-standing leader Luis Tudanca was replaced by Soria mayor since 2007, Carlos Martínez. Tudanca's growing divergences with the national PSOE (which saw his resistance to the modification of the regional candidate lists ahead of the 2023 general election, as well as his critical position on the regional financing policy of Sánchez's government), ultimately led to an open clash with the national party leadership in the autumn of 2024, as Tudanca sought to call regional primaries ahead of the federal party congress to secure himself in the post. The national party cancelled the primaries regarding them as anti-statutory, prompting Tudanca to renounce standing for re-election.
Overview Under the 2007 Statute of Autonomy, the Cortes of Castile and León 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.. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions..
Date The term of the of Castile and León 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 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of Castile and León (BOCYL), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.; ( by ). The previous election was held on 13 February 2022, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 13 February 2026. The election decree was required to be published in the BOCYL no later than 20 January 2026, setting the latest possible date for election day on 15 March 2026.
The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the of Castile and León 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 either during the first legislative session or 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 were to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called..
In January 2023, it was commented that President Mañueco could try to reset the electoral cycle to make it coincide with the 2023 Spanish local elections on 28 May that year, this was ruled out by Mañueco himself. Further speculation surfaced with the advancement of the 2023 Spanish general election to 23 July, but the regional government ultimately rejected it. In late 2024, it emerged that Mañueco was considering to call a snap election in the event of being unable to get his 2025 budget passed through parliament—following Vox's decision to exit the cabinet earlier that year—but this was again rejected in December 2024, as well as another round of speculation following a party crisis in Vox that saw the resignation of García-Gallardo as regional leader in February 2025. On 16 September 2025, the regional government confirmed that the election would most likely be held on 15 March 2026—the latest possible date in which it could legally be held—except in the event of a snap general election being called earlier, in which case both would be held concurrently. After the confirmation on 27 October 2025 of a snap regional election in Extremadura for 21 December, Mañueco ruled out a concurrent electoral call and insisted that his plan was still to hold the Castilian-Leonese election in March 2026. 15 March was confirmed as the election date on 14 January 2026, a few days before the scheduled dissolution of parliament.
The of Castile and León was officially dissolved on 20 January 2026 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOCYL, setting election day for 15 March and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 14 April..
Electoral system Voting for the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Castile and León and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence.; ( by ). Amendments in 2022 abolished the "begged" voting system (), under which non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting. The begged vote system was attributed responsibility for a major decrease in the turnout of Spaniards abroad during the years it was in force.
The of Castile and León had three seats per each multi-member constituency—corresponding to the provinces of Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora—plus one additional seat per 45,000 inhabitants or fraction above 22,500. All were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.; . The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each constituency was entitled the following seats:.
Seats Constituencies 15 Valladolid 13 León 11 Burgos 10 Salamanca 7 Ávila, Palencia, Segovia, Zamora 5 Soria
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. ( by ).
Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.
+ Parliamentary composition in January 2026 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total People's Parliamentary Group PP 31 31 Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 28 28 Vox Castile and León Parliamentary Group Vox 11 11 Leonese People's Union–Soria Now! Group UPL 3 6 SY 3 Mixed Group Podemos 1 3 XAV 1 IzqEsp 1 Non-Inscrits INDEP 2 2
Parties and candidates