With almost 90 percent of the votes counted, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative PP is to come first in Spain’s repeat elections, achieving a stronger majority than it did in last December’s general elections. PP’s gains come to the chagrin of the centrist Ciudadanos, who are expected to lose one fifth of their 40 MPs.
But the real surprise of the election night came from the Left. Unlike what most surveys and exit polls had indicated; the anti-austerity UNIDOS PODEMOS failed to overtake the socialist PSOE as the nation’s largest party on the Left. PSOE saw only a marginal decrease in its votes, and will secure around 86 seats to UNIDOS PODEMOS’s 71.
The PP’s anticipated 136 seats, however, are not enough for a single-party government. Coalition talks between the PP and the Ciudadanos, or the PSOE and the Ciudadanos, are seen as likely. The latter two had struck a deal in April; but the proposed coalition fell through when PODEMOS refused to support it.
PODEMOS leader Iglesias, in turn, may seek a coalition with the PSOE.