Spain In Flux As Parties Oppose Conservative PM Govt

Spanish Prime Minister and Popular Party leader, Mariano Rajoy waves after delivering a speech after the results of Spain’s general election on December 20, 2015.

Led by Mariano Rajoy, the current prime minister, Sunday’s election results left the party with limited possibilities when it comes to the alliances they now need to form a stable government majority.

The conservative governing party won the most votes on Sunday, but lost its majority in parliamentary elections that underlined the fragmentation of Spanish politics and left the country’s future leadership unclear.

The PSOE followed with 90 seats and 22 per cent of the vote, then Podemos with 69 seats and almost 21 per cent, and finally the centrists Ciudadanos with 40 seats or nearly 14 per cent.

“Podemos would not permit a PP government, either actively or passively”, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias told reporters, meaning that his party will neither vote for PP rule nor abstain in a parliamentary vote on a new government.

While the PSOE has rejected Rajoy, it could agree not to vote against a conservative government that excludes the incumbent premier, said Fernando Vallespin, politics professor at Madrid’s Autonomous University.

The two left-wing parties won 159 seats between them in the 350-seat parliament, and with Catalan nationalists likely to join them in opposing the PP, it appears to make it virtually impossible for the PP to construct a majority.

The results represent a huge drop in support for Spain’s two establishment parties that have controlled the country for decades-the conservative Popular Party received a third less support than it had in the 2011 elections, and the Socialist Party experienced its worst election in the party’s history.

But school teacher Maribel Martinez, who voted for the Popular Party, was petrified that Spain could descend into political chaos with no stable government for months or an administration run by left-of-center and left-wing parties bent on reversing what Rajoy spent four years accomplishing.

However, Albert Rivera, the Citizens leader, told The Times in an interview last week that he had ruled out joining a coalition government and would take the party into Opposition and support a minority government on an occasional basis.

But the political instability provoked a drop Monday in Madrid’s stock market, with shares on the IBEX 35 falling 2.8 percent in early trading before a slight recovery, the BBC reported.

Two newcomer parties burst onto the scene, capitalizing on many voters’ disenchantment with high unemployment, constant corruption cases and the country’s political status quo. The nominee must garner a majority of deputies’ votes in Parliament in a first round to take office, or the most votes in the second round.

Rajoy’s government is credited with dragging Spain back from the economic abyss and returning it to strong growth.

Under Spanish law, the new parliament must be called by January 13, after which lawmakers have two months to elect a government.