Spain’s opposition right-wing People’s Party (PP) won Sunday’s early parliamentary elections with over 99.8% of the votes counted, but fell short of a parliamentary majority.
The results showed that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s PP and Socialists (PSOE) had 33% and 31.7% of the vote, respectively.
This would give the PP, led by Alberto Nunez Feijoo, 136 seats in the 350-seat lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies and 122 seats for the Socialists.
Feijoo told supporters gathered outside the party headquarters in Madrid that it was his “duty to try to form a government”.
The parties now want to form a coalition government
The PP now needs the support of several junior parties to secure a governing majority of 176 seats, a result likely to provoke weeks of political wrangling.
The far-right Vox, which offered to partner with the PP, was expected to win 33 seats. But with 169 seats, the PP would still be seven seats short.
However, if this partnership is later confirmed along with a third party, it would be the first time a far-right party has come to power in Spain since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in the 1970s.
The far-left Sumar, which united 15 small left-wing parties and supported the Socialists, won 31 seats, giving their coalition only 153 seats.
The other parties are mostly region-specific. The two Catalan pro-independence parties, which previously voted for a government led by Sanchez, have seen their seats fall but could still play the role of kingmaker if Sanchez tries to stay on as prime minister.
Sanchez and Feijoo both claim victory
The PP leader told his supporters in Madrid on Sunday evening that his party would now try to form a government.
“As the candidate of the party that won the most seats, I feel it is my duty to try to form a government,” Feijoo said.
He urged that “no one should succumb to the temptation to block the formation of a new government,” adding that Spain does not need a period of uncertainty.
Sanchez also celebrated the result from the balcony of his party headquarters late Sunday, as the Socialists won more seats and a higher share of the vote than in the 2019 election.
He told supporters that the conservative and far-right bloc’s planned victory had fallen through.
“The backward-looking bloc that proposed a total reversal of all the advances we’ve made over the past four years has failed,” he told his supporters.
“The regressive bloc of the People’s Party and Vox has been defeated.”
“There are many more who want Spain to go further than those who want to go backwards,” Sanchez added.
Why did Spain hold snap elections?
Sanchez called the new election early after the left suffered a defeat in local elections in May
The vote was originally scheduled for December. But his attempt to mislead his opponents appears to have backfired.
The election came just three weeks after Spain took over the rotating presidency of the European Union and the PP’s victory is a new blow to the European left after similar moves in other EU countries – Sweden, Finland and Italy.
The prime minister’s minority socialist government is currently in a coalition with far-left Unidas Podemos, which is running in Sunday’s election under the Sumar platform Credit: Emilio Morenatti/AP/Picture Alliance
The election also took place in the middle of summer, when a significant number of voters may not be at their usual polling stations due to holidays and a month of heat waves.
However, officials still expected a turnout of 70%.
A record 2.47 million of the 37.5 million registered voters cast their postal votes before polling stations even opened
A smaller party is poised to assume the role of kingmaker
Pre-election polls had predicted a larger majority for the PP, but would need Vox support to form a government.
Nunez Feijoo must now negotiate with much smaller parties to reach the 176 target.
In an interview published by El Mundo on Friday, Feijoo explained that a candidate cannot disclose his alliances just two days before an election. He added that a government with Vox is “not ideal”.
However, since the local elections in May, the PP and Vox have already joined forces to govern dozens of regions and cities.
Support for the anti-Islamic and anti-feminist party is in decline. In the last election in November 2019, Vox won 52 seats. If Sunday night’s voter polls are correct, she could get two-thirds of that number in this election.
mm, lo/jcg (AP, AFP, EFE, Portal)