Neither the incumbent prime minister Mariano Rajoy, whose conservative People’s party (PP) lost 43 of its 186 seats, nor the Socialists (PSOE) of Pedro Sanchez can form a government without the help of the new insurgents of anti-austerity Podemos or the new liberal party, Ciudadanos.
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The ambiguous outcome pushed Spain’s benchmark stock index down 3.6 per cent in Madrid as investors fretted over the possibility of a governing alliance between the Socialist Party and the country’s new far-left Podemos party, led by pony-tailed political science professor Pablo Iglesias.
With the majority of votes counted, the Popular Party (PP) had 123 seats; the Socialists 90 and the anti-austerity Podemos party 69.
For his part, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, who leads a political party which came to power with a similar anti-austerity message, hailed the victory of Podemos.
Speaking to supporters in Madrid just after midnight, Rajoy said: “Whoever wins the elections has the obligation to try to form a government, and I will try to do so because Spain needs a stable government”. This has fueled claims by Ciudadanos and Podemos that the Socialists plunged Spain into an economic crisis and the Popular Party has failed to fix the problem.
According to Xavier Giro, a professor of political journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Sunday’s elections brought in a new political era in Spain, with “a totally fragmented” parliament and a government formed by at least two parties or even more.
A minority PP government would be technically possible but unlikely due to the strong left-wing vote, as would be a grand coalition between the PP and the Socialists, which both parties vehemently ruled out during campaigning. However Spain’s unemployment, hovering at 21.1%, is the second highest in the European Union after Greece.
Two “upstart” parties have emerged since the last Spanish election in 2011: left-leaning Podemos, and Ciudadanos, which has presented itself as a centrist alternative to Podemos. Spain’s political system has remained unchanged since its transition from a monarchy to a democracy in the 1975.
Under Spanish law, the new parliament must be called by January 13, after which lawmakers have two months to elect a government. “The election outcome failed to provide us a clear picture of who will take power”, said Anders Moller Lumholtz, chief analyst with Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen.
Crucially, Spain’s constitution sets no specific deadline for the king to nominate a candidate. This is a sharp loss from previous elections and far from the 176 seats needed for a majority government.
“If there is no majority and many parties have a say, that could be a bit of a mess”, said Josefa Robledillo, 50, a housewife from the Aluche district of Madrid who voted for the PP. “I hope that now that the economy is going a little better, things will stay on track”.
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If Spain wants stable government, an agreement between two or three of these parties is the only real option.
