PP Wins Spanish General Elections but Lacks Majority PP leader and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy claimed victory in the general elections and said he would try to form a stable government. However Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez stated the outcome clearly shows “Spain wants a move to the left”, in addition to in that he & his party bash are prepared for talks in that would result in a governing accord.
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But this time around many voters are expected to cast their ballots for two upstart parties vying for change – the centrist Ciudadanos and the anti-austerity Podemos, a close ally of Greece’s Syriza.
Spain’s disenchantment with its traditional political class is part of a wider phenomenon that’s seen voters embrace new faces.
ReutersPodemos (We Can) party leader Pablo Iglesias gestures to supporters after results were announced in Spain’s general election in Madrid, Spain, December 21, 2015.
Rajoy recognized his party had taken “some hard and even unpopular decisions” over the past four years.
“Spain has inaugurated a new political era in our country”.
“Now we have… the old versus the new”, said Salazar.
Spain has been dominated for more than three decades by the conservative Popular Party and the main opposition Socialists, who have alternated running the government.
Thirty-seven percent of the electorate had voted as of 2 p.m.in Madrid, nearly 1 percentage point below 2011 elections, according to the Interior Ministry. To complicate matters further, Albert Rivera, the Ciudadanos leader, has said he will not back Mr Rajoy as prime minister but would rather abstain.
Many held pieces of paper with “Yes” written on them while others waved cards with Podemos – which in Spanish means “we can”.
However, should the political wrangling last too long, another election could be called and pro-independence Catalan parties could also use any deadlock to push their cause higher on the national agenda. “It is likely that a fresh approach could lead to important changes in the political system, and notably, on the accountability of the government”.
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Some of the voters choosing to support the new far-left Podemos party in Spain’s general election are young and disillusioned with the country’s two mainstream parties. Both gained strength by portraying the Popular Party and the Socialists as out-of-touch behemoths run by politicians who care more about maintaining their own power than citizens’ needs. “A new Spain… was born today”, Iglesias told journalists late Sunday.
