Spanish Ruling Popular Party Wins Elections

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.

In the weekend elections, the new party Podemos, with which the Spanish Green Party (Equo) has a partnership, won 20.7% of the vote, while another new party, Ciudadanos, won 13.9%.

But with the PP only winning 123 seats – far short of the 176 it would need for an absolute majority – the two left-wing parties are key to whether Rajoy can form a government or not.

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

Francisco Herrera, a 43-year-old porter in Madrid, said he was disappointed with Rajoy’s leadership, but voted for the Popular Party because it “defends the economy and the type of government that suits us right now”. If the vote is lost again, the King has to put forward a new candidate.

Within a day of the electoral announcement, the country’s bonds and stock plunged; the IBEX 35 index fell by three percent initially in early morning trading, before settling at a 1.8 percent decline. Premier Rajoy could therefore be open to a “German style” coalition with the PSOE, leaving Podemos led by Pablo Iglesias Turrión, out of the government. It is a phase of unprecedented ungovernability for the country: the only certainty is that the next government will have to be supported by a coalition yet to be determined and that is very reminiscent of the Italian political scene.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said he hoped political leaders would succeed in forming a stable government in the eurozone’s fourth largest economy.

Now politics here are likely to look like the rest of Europe with grand coalitions like Germany.

According to AMNA government sources, said that Tsipras congratulated Iglesias and agreed with him that the results signalled the political loss of austerity governments. The lawmaking body has two months to elect a prime minister or call fresh elections. With Sunday’s vote resulting in four main parties in parliament without any clear government constellation, jockeying has begun as the parties seek to adapt to the new political landscape.

The inconclusive vote heralded a new era of pact-making, shattering a two-party system between PP and PSOE that has dominated Spain since the 1970s, with the surge from Podemos – the latest of several strong showings by populist parties in European elections – giving it a potential role as kingmaker.