• Conservative PP wins 33 percent of vote and additional 14 seats in Congress
• Unidos Podemos loses 1.2 million votes, placing 3rd behind relieved Socialists
The Partido Popular (PP) campaign appeal to supporters to block “radicals and extremists” and to not throw away their vote on rival centre-right Ciudadanos worked well for the conservative party in Sundays general election, with the PP rebounding from the 20th December election results both in its share of the national vote count and winning an additional 14 seats in Congress, albeit falling short of the 176-seat absolute majority in Congress needed to form the next government.
While the PP’s win was predicted by voter preference polls in the run-up to the balloting, pollsters’ projections that the left-wing Unidos Podemos coalition would overtake the Socialist party (PSOE) in a dramatic sorpasso surge were completely wrong — the electoral pact between Podemos (We Can) and Izquierda Unida (IU, United Left) actually lost 1.2 million votes from their combined totals on 20th December, presenting them with an inglorious finish 14 seats behind the Socialists in third place.
PSOE’s loss of 5 seats in Congress from its December finish left it in second place with 85 congressional seats, making it more difficult for the party to put together a progressive governing coalition than after the December balloting, when Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias scuttled three-way talks among PSOE, Ciudadanos and Podemos and forced Spain to repeat the elections in a second round on Sunday.
With no absolute majority winner, the parties will all now begin discussions to see which pacts may be assembled to allow either the PP or the PSOE to lead the next government. The newly elected legislators are slated to take their seats in Congress on 19th July, after which head of state King Felipe VI will ask one of the party leaders to submit his candidacy to lead the next government to a full vote by Congress.
► Read More in Spanish at El País and El Mundo …
► Read More in English at and El País and The Guardian …
