According to projections, the conservative Popular Party (PP) won the parliamentary elections in Spain on Sunday, but clearly lost the absolute majority. The previous head of government, Pedro Sánchez, came in second with his socialist PSOE. It was not clear on election night whether the winner of the PP election, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, would succeed in forming a government.
The far-right populist Vox, with which Feijóo does not rule out cooperation, made it clear on election night that he wanted to be in government. You will not “cast” your own votes, warned Vox general secretary Ignacio Garriga.
According to projections based on a good 94% vote count, the PP can expect 136 seats in Madrid’s parliament. Although Vox suffered losses and won only 33 seats, paradoxically it is likely to significantly increase its political influence. However, the two parties were unlikely to achieve an absolute majority of 176 seats together. PSOE came second with 122 seats. Its left-wing partner, the newly formed Sumar electoral alliance, was fourth with 31 seats.
If the PP and Vox lost their absolute majority, they would have to count on the support or at least the tolerance of the smaller parties of the “Congreso de los Diputados”. That’s unlikely, given opposition from other parties to right-wing populists. Furthermore, the PSOE can count on the support of regional parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia more than the PP.
As a result, the EU’s fourth-largest economy, which currently holds the Union’s presidency, could face a long stalemate. A “blockade”, a political blockade of the type that occurred twice in a row after the 2015 and 2019 elections and required a runoff in each case, did not seem to be out of the question.
Like partner parties in Hungary and Poland, Vox has a unique understanding of the rule of law. She is also Eurosceptic and calls for profiting from prestige left-wing projects in the areas of social affairs, minority protection and the environment, and cracking down on separatists. There is no so-called firewall on the right in Spain, as there is in Germany against the AfD. In some regions, PP and Vox already rule together. A “grand coalition” is unthinkable in Spain. Sánchez does not even want to tolerate a minority government of the PP and, therefore, “doesn’t leave him any choice” but to talk to Vox, Feijóo emphasized several times.
On Sunday, parts of the Senate were re-elected, in addition to the lower house “Congreso de los Diputados”. In Spain, however, the upper house plays no role in forming a government. Parliamentary elections, in fact, were only planned for the end of the year. But Sánchez preferred it after the defeat of leftist parties in the May 28 regional elections. The left-wing government has repeatedly warned that a right-wing government would undo the social gains of recent years and set the country back decades. She was not heard.
The vote was originally scheduled for December. But Sánchez called new elections after the left suffered defeat in regional elections in May. The head of government’s Socialists are currently forming a minority government with the leftist Unidas Podemos (UP). The UP contested the election at the leftist Sumar rally.