The central government in Madrid has also had to deal with an attempt by Catalonia to break away from the rest of Spain.
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Sunday’s vote also marked the end of the preeminence of the two-party system in Spain which has prevailed since Spain become democratic.
The Spanish people are going to the polls today in a milestone election that will see more than two parties compete for power for the first time in thirty years.
After holding talks with the leaders of each party that has won seats in parliament, King Felipe VI, the head of state, will nominate a prime minister – most likely Rajoy.
At first, the fall is most evident in that of the Partido Popular, which has lost more than 15% of the vote and 65 seats in four years.
He also said those who were talking of a “grand coalition” between the PP and the Socialists had failed to recognise Spain was no longer a two-party system.
The results mean that the parliament will be constituted of four main groupings of significant clout, as opposed to the usual PP and Socialists tandem.
Political science professor Pablo Iglesias, a ponytailed 37-year-old, and his radical left Podemos party want to break the mold of Spanish politics.
The Socialists could team up with Podemos and smaller parties to try to form a parliamentary majority without having to tap support from Ciudadanos.
Supporters of Spain’s Popular Party (PP) had the bitter taste of victory in their mouths Sunday, after Mariano Rajoy’s conservatives came top in legislative elections but did not yet know whether they could govern.
Election turnout was 73% – up slightly compared to the 2011 election.
There are fears that Spain’s elections results could lead to a new EU-rebellion, similar to movements in Greece and Portugal, that have demanded a relaxing or abolition of austerity after years of hardship, sparking a fresh challenge to Brussels’ economic agenda and a further dividing of the bloc.
Official results were expected later last night, with a final totals expected to be published on Wednesday. They’ve said enough of deference; enough of reds and blues and blues and reds.
Miguel Redondo, a 19-year-old Madrid university student, voted for Podemos because “it’s the party that best understands the difficulties that young people are going through” in a nation where joblessness for people under 25 is more than double the country’s overall 21 percent unemployment rate.
Irene Montero, a 27-year-old Podemos delegate who Iglesias has named as one of two vice-presidents in a possible cabinet, counters that the party has simply grown up.
The daily El Razon dislikes the possibility of the Socialists and Podemos forming a coalition with regional independence parties, saying: “A government based on pacts between such a wide range of parties, united exclusively by the desire to oust the Popular Party from power, is not what Spain needs right now”.
While Rajoy has claimed credit for steering the country out of an economic recession, leaders of the startup parties Ciudadanos and Podemos have described the mainstream parties, especially the right-of-center PP, of being out of touch with citizens’ issues.
Ironically the relatively new liberal party Ciudadanos, which sells itself as a “centrist” force, could play a key role in negotiations – even though it fell short of expectations in this election.
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It is the beginning of a new, multi-party era in Spain. But its public finances remain strained and unemployment levels hover around 20 percent.
