Spanish election: PP wins most seats but deadlock remains

The PP celebrated in Madrid after the election, but political deadlock remains

The conservative People's Party (PP) of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has won most seats in Spain's parliamentary election but is short of a majority.

 

Spain's other main party, the Socialist PSOE, is in second place. The left-wing Unidos Podemos alliance and centre-right Ciudadanos are third and fourth.

Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is still short of a majority

The vote has failed to break six months of political deadlock since December's inconclusive poll. But Mr Rajoy said he had a right to resume office.

PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez says his party is the "foremost political power on the left"

"We have won the elections, we demand the right to govern," he told hundreds of cheering supporters at a victory rally in Madrid on Sunday evening.

Unidos Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias failed to beat the Socialists to second place

• Spain's lost months of politics

Official results give the PP 137 seats in the 350-seat parliament, up 15 from the 122 they won the December ballot. The PSOE won 85, confounding an earlier exit poll suggesting it would slip into third place, but still five fewer than in December.

All the other parties lost votes or seats, or both. Unidos Podemos and Ciudadanos, both relative newcomers, won 71 and 32 seat respectively.

The PP now faces a similar challenge to form a government as after the December poll. It needs support from a number of other parties in order to achieve a voting majority. The Spanish election came days after the UK voted in a referendum to leave the EU.

Mr Rajoy had sought to portray the election as a choice between economic stability and the uncertainty offered by Unidos Podemos ("Together We Can"), a coalition led by anti-austerity party Podemos that emerged just two years ago in protest against austerity measures demanded by Brussels.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has denied his party is Eurosceptic, "sad" at the outcome of Britain's referendum. "We hope for a different Europe, we will fight for a Europe with social rights as a reality and we are for Europe and the people in Europe."

December's election was a watershed for Spain, because the PP and the PSOE had previously alternated in power since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s.

But after months of talks no party was able to form a coalition or minority government. Unidos Podemos and other left-wing groups argued that the PP, under Mr Rajoy, had been discredited because of austerity and the chronic unemployment that has plagued Spain since the 2008 financial crisis.

The PP, however, says Spain's improved economic performance is proof that its policies have worked.
Casting his vote on Sunday, Mr Rajoy urged Spaniards who "love and feel for their country" to make their voices heard.

"Spain will be what the Spanish people want it to be, it will have the government and the members of parliament the people want," he said.