Spain thrust into governing void after splintered vote

The Socialist Party received 90 seats, while Podemos and allies won 69 and Ciudadanos got 40.

Likewise, one political commentator told Digital Look he believed the decision by Albert Rivera on Friday to announce that he would not oppose the most-voted party (which was always likely to be the Partido Popular) may have robbed him of some support. Even if a government is formed, it is likely to be weak. A worker removes a campaign poster for the national elections depicting Spain’s Prime Minister and Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy, in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015.

If forced from power, Rajoy and the Popular Party would become the third European victims this year of a voter backlash against austerity – following elections in Greece and Portugal seen as ballot box rebellions against unpopular tax hikes and spending cuts invoked during the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Despite garnering the most votes, the centre-right People’s Party (PP) had its worst result ever in a parliamentary election as Spaniards angered by high-level corruption cases and soaring unemployment turned away from the party in droves. Those two parties, Podemos and Ciudadanos, are “the two major destabilizers in this election”, Campbell said in a note.

Spain’s opposition Socialist party Monday said it would vote against having acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy form a new government, thus killing one of Rajoy’s options to stay in power after voters elected a fragmented Parliament.

Socialist party official Cesar Luena said Rajoy’s Popular Party, which won the most votes, should have the first crack at forming a government but ruled out supporting Rajoy, eliminating the already slim possibility of an unprecedented coalition of the two parties which had dominated Spanish politics for decades.

But Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias is insisting on a Catalan independence referendum as a condition for a deal, which would be hard for the Socialists to agree to.

But Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez said the result clearly shows “Spain wants a move to the left”, adding that he and his party are ready for talks that could lead to a governing accord.

A prominent Socialist leader, Susana Diaz, rejected his overture on Tuesday, saying the party must keep its word and vote “emphatically no” to a new PP government.

The Spanish economy grew 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the Bank of Spain estimated, maintaining the pace of expansion from the previous three months.

Greeks in January elected far-left Syriza party with charismatic Alexis Tsipras to run a coalition government, seen as a vote against the tough austerity measures imposed on the country. Although Spain’s economy is now one of the fastest-growing in the 28-nation European Union, its unemployment rate is the second-highest in the EU after Greece.