The Conservatives win but fail to achieve a majority – DW – 07/24/2023

Spain’s opposition right-wing Popular Party won Sunday’s snap general election, with more than 99.8% of the vote counted but set to fall short of a parliamentary majority.

The results showed that the Socialist People’s Party and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez received 33% and 31.7% of the vote, respectively.

This would give the People’s Party, led by leader Alberto Núñez Figo, 136 seats in the 350-seat Chamber of Deputies, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Socialists 122.

The parties are now looking to form a coalition government

The People’s Party now requires the support of several smaller parties to achieve a governing majority of 176 seats, so the result is likely to produce weeks of political maneuvering.

The far-right Vox party, which had offered to partner with PP, was expected to win 33 seats. But with 169 seats, the People’s Party will still fall short at seven.

But if this partnership is later confirmed, along with a third party, it will be the first time that an extreme right-wing party has entered government in Spain since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in the 1970s.

The radical left-wing Somar Party, which brought together 15 small left-wing parties and supported the Socialists, won 31 seats, giving their alliance only 153 seats.

The remaining parties are mostly region specific. The two pro-independence Catalans, who voted to support a Sanchez-led government before, have seen their seat numbers drop, but they may still play the role of kingmaker if Sanchez tries to stay on as prime minister.

Sanchez and Figo both claim victory

The leader of the People’s Party told supporters in Madrid on Sunday night that his party would now try to form a government.

“As the candidate of the party that won the most seats, I believe it is my duty to try to form a government,” Figo said.

He demanded that “no one fall into the temptation to obstruct the formation of a new government,” adding that Spain does not need a period of uncertainty.

Sanchez was also celebrating the result from the balcony of his party headquarters late Sunday, with the Socialists winning more seats and a higher percentage of the vote than in the 2019 election.

He told his supporters that the expected victory of the conservative bloc and the far right had failed.

He told his supporters that “the backward bloc that proposed a complete repeal of all the progress we have made over the past four years has failed.”

The reactionary bloc of the Popular Party and Fox was beaten.

“There are more people who want Spain to continue to advance than those who want to retreat,” Sanchez added.

Why did Spain hold early elections?

Sanchez called the election Early after the left suffered a defeat in the local elections in May

The vote was originally scheduled for December. But his gamble on his opponents’ error seemed to backfire.

The elections took place only three weeks after Spain assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union, and the victory of the People’s Party was a new blow to the European left after similar moves in other European Union countries – Sweden, Finland and Italy.

The elections also took place at the height of summer, when a large number of voters may be away from their usual polling locations due to holidays and at the end of the month. heat waves.

However, officials expected 70% participation.

A record number, 2.47 million, of the 37.5 million registered voters cast their absentee ballots even before polling stations opened.

The little party is getting ready to play kingmaker

Pre-election polls had predicted a greater majority for the People’s Party but it would have to rely on Vox’s support to form a government.

Núñez Figo now needs to negotiate with much smaller parties to try and reach goal number 176.

In an interview published on Friday by El Mundo, Feijoo stated that a candidate should not reveal their alliances just two days before the election. He added that forming a government with Vox “is not ideal”.

However, PP and Vox have already teamed up to govern dozens of regions and cities since the local elections in May.

Support for the anti-Islam, anti-feminist party is dwindling. In the last election in November 2019, Vox won 52 seats. If Sunday night voter polls are correct, you could get two-thirds of that number in this election.

mm, LOW/GCG (AP, AFP, EFE, Reuters)