Mariano Rajoy: Spain’s acting PM seeking broad backing for coalition government

“We have won the elections – we claim the right to govern”, Rajoy told the crowd.

Spaniards headed to the polls Sunday for an unprecedented repeat election that aims to break six months of political deadlock after a December ballot left the country without an elected government.

Spain’s newcomer liberal party, Ciudadanos, is ready to immediately open talks with the PP to form a government after Sunday’s general election, Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera said.

Luis Fernandez, a 37-year-old community organiser, said he had voted for the Socialists in the past but would vote for Rajoy this time around.

The general election in December had resulted in a 350-seat parliament so splintered that parties failed to agree on a coalition, and this is what has prompted Sunday’s repeat vote.

The acting Prime Minister finds himself in a remarkably similar situation to December and needs to find a coalition partner in order to form a government. They would need support of other parties.

Spanish politics have been in an ungovernable deadlock since December.

(AP Photo/Paul White). A follower of Spain’s acting Primer Minister and candidate of Popular Party Mariano Rajoy, celebrates the results of the party at the national elections in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, June 26, 2016.

So once the celebrations stop, the wrangling over coalitions will begin and it will not be easy. Spain’s Interior Ministry says 92 percent of the votes have been officially counted in the country’s repeat election and the conservative Popular Party leads with 32 percent of the vote.

Thus far, Spain’s economic growth has held up well in the face of political uncertainty, the agency said. All parties are now under pressure to reach a compromise, form a coalition, and get back to the business of governing. Exit Polls had indicated that Unidos Podemos would come second, but in the end they finished third with 21.10 percent of the votes-just behind Partido Socialista (Socialist Party).

The social-democratic leader underlined that the votes from his party, which remained in the second position in the elections, will go to change the unfair, inefficient and antisocial policies of the conservative Popular Party (PP). A new round of political negotiations could be complicated by support for a new far-left alliance called Unidos Podemos (United We Can).

And Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has denied his party is Eurosceptic, telling the BBC he was “sad” at the outcome of Britain’s referendum.