Madrid, Spain – The lack of a clear winner in Sunday’s snap elections in Spain leaves the country teetering on the brink of a fresh spell of major political turbulence, with both of its main parties struggling to find a clear path towards forming a new government.
Most pre-election polls had suggested the conservative Partido Popular (PP) would secure a large enough share of the vote to oust the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), albeit needing the hard-right Vox formation as its junior partner in government.
Yet despite the PP winning the most seats, their combined total with Vox of 170 deputies failed to add up to the absolute majority needed to gain power.
Meanwhile, an unexpected slight boost in the PSOE’s support saw the Socialists rebound from their stinging losses in May’s regional elections and could yet see Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his hard-left Sumar allies form another minority government.
“The PP may have won the elections, but in fact they’ve suffered a huge defeat,” Oriol Bartomeus, research professor at the Institute of Political and Social Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told Al Jazeera.
“They’ve fallen so far short of their predicted success that their strength in negotiations is seriously impaired, and the days of Alberto Núñez Feijóo as PP party leader are likely numbered, too. He had one shot at taking power, and he missed.”
Post from www.aljazeera.com