Conservative PP emerged as the largest party but fell short of overall majority

The second spain election in six months failed to produce the outright winner to form the government, and end the political deadlock. The conservative Partido Popular (PP) emerged as the largest party in the Spanish parliament but fell short of overall majority needed to form the government. The PP got 137 seats ( an increase of 14 seats) and 33 percent votes. The Socialists (PSOE) got 85 seats ( loss of five seats). The left wing Unidos Podemos got 71 seats( an increase of two seats). The centrist Ciudadanos party got 32 seats.

With the slight difference, the results followed the pattern in December 2015 spain election. The PP won 123 seats, PSOE 90 seats, Podemos 69 seats and Ciudadanos 40 seats in December. Despite winning 14 extra seats, the PP is still short of 176 seats needed to form the majority government. PP needs another 39 seats to form the government, which might come from liberal Ciudadanos. Now the intense discussions will resume to form the coalition government. After the last spain election in December 2015, no party was able to put a coalition together to form the government.

The continued political deadlock forced the second election but without having a clear winner. Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s center-right People’s Party (PP) again emerged with the single biggest bloc of seats but fell short of a majority, leaving the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy at risk of another lengthy political stalemate or even of a third general  election. The PP was the only major party to increase its share of seats from December’s inconclusive poll, sapping the power of a wave of new parties which had fed on years of deep recession and public anger over corruption scandals within the major parties.

Left held the ground

There were big expectations that the left wing, anti austerity alliance between Podemos and United Left will perform better than the last spain election in December. But the result is below the expectations and Unidos Podemos just got two more seats. The opinion polls were showing strong support for Podemos but this support could’t translate into votes. It was expected that Unidos Podemos will over take PSOE as the second largest party in the Parliament. But PSOE hold to its ground and finished second ahead of UP.

Podemos emerged on the political scene in the last spain election when it finished at top in Catalonia and Basque country. Podemos become third largest party in the Spanish parliament. In run- up to the vote, the party seemed to have capitalised on growing disenchantment with the traditional political establishment. The austerity and cuts on the benefits and social spending by the respective PP and PSOE governments made them unpopular among the working people. Both PP and PSOE dominated the political scene since 1970s, when Franco was ousted and democracy was restored.

PSOE was a traditional working class party which was used to enjoy massive support among the working class and poor. But it moved to the right in 1990s and gradually lost support among working class and poor. PSOE government undertake austerity and massive cuts on benefits and social spending. The PSOE adopted the free market economy and neoliberalism as its economic policies. The attacks on the living standards of working class and austerity made PSOE very unpopular.

There was a huge vacuum on the left which was filled by Podemos in the last elections. Podemos is a reformist movement with having middle class leadership but attracted working class layers. It has maintained its position in the run-up election but failed to expand its support base significantly.