Spain’s two main leftist parties, the anti-establishment group Podemos and the 137-year-old Socialists, probably won a majority of seats in parliament in Sunday’s election, an exit poll showed.
Podemos won 91 to 95 seats compared with 71 at the last vote in December while the Socialists slipped to 81 to 85 seats from 90, according to the poll by Sigma Dos published by the state broadcaster. While 176 lawmakers combined would, in theory, give the two groups a majority in the 350-seat chamber, Podemos’s surge may complicate negotiations because many Socialist activists may recoil at the thought of helping their rivals take power.
“If the results are confirmed, Podemos and the Socialists will be closer to a majority, but it’s a difficult situation for the Socialist party if they come in third,” said Antonio Barroso, political analyst at Teneo Intelligence in London. “They’ll have to explain either why they did not join Podemos to form a government, or deal with internal party pressure from Socialists who don’t want this union.”
Spaniards held their second general election in six months with party leaders seeking to break the political deadlock that has left their country without a proper government since the inconclusive result in December.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party won the most seats with 117 to 121, though the second- and third-placed groups have both ruled out supporting him. The liberals of Ciudadanos fell to 26 to 30 seats compared with 40 last time.
While European leaders trying to get to grips with the political chaos unleashed by the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, Spain is trying to forge a new political consensus to take the country forward after the trauma of the financial crisis. The country’s next premier will have to rein in the euro region’s second-biggest budget deficit while dealing with a 20 percent unemployment rate that’s four times the level in the U.K.
spain