Political uncertainty mounts in wake of Spanish election

Spain’s political impasse deepened on Monday as the governing Popular Party’s chances of forming a new government appeared to narrow further after inconclusive elections on Sunday.

The PP won the most seats, ahead of the Socialist Party, but its majority was wiped out as newcomers Podemos and Ciudadanos made an impact in a four-way race that left a fragmented and potentially unstable parliament.

In the congressional procedure to vote in a new government, the PP would need the active support of at least one other large party in order to continue governing. Or it would require several opposition parties to abstain in order for it to govern in a minority.

But the Socialists have reiterated their unwillingness to ease the PP’s return to power as Socialist spokesman César Luena said his party will “vote against the investiture of Mariano Rajoy”.

The governing party now has 123 seats in the 350-seat chamber, followed by 90 for the Socialists, who suffered their worst result of the modern era. Together they would be the only vaguely realistic two-party combination that could form an outright majority. However, during the election campaign the Socialists ruled out taking part in an unprecedented governing coalition with the PP and Mr Luena’s comments go even further, emphasising his party’s active opposition to a new Rajoy administration.

The PP asserted Rajoy’s right to attempt to form a government and appeared to warn the Socialists not to block the way. “We’re playing with Spain’s stability,” said Fernando Martínez Maíllo, of the PP’s executive, who said the Socialists needed to be “responsible”.

Liberal abstention

The liberal Ciudadanos party, which won 40 seats, has said it would abstain in order to allow the party with the most votes to form a government. However, with Congress having shifted to the left on Sunday, that is unlikely to be enough.

Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera called on his Socialist counterpart Pedro Sánchez to join him in abstaining in order to allow Mr Rajoy to govern. “[Sánchez] has to show whether he’s thinking more about Spain or about what is left of his party,” said Mr Rivera.

If Mr Rajoy failed to be voted in, the Socialists would then be given the chance to attempt the same, and elections would be held again if no government emerged.

However, Pablo Iglesias, leader of the anti-austerity Podemos, warned that he would demand a referendum on independence for Catalonia in return for his party’s support.

“We don’t want Catalonia to leave Spain, but we want a new constitutional framework, we want there to be a vote,” said Iglesias, who was Sunday’s success story, winning 69 seats in his first general election.

Catalan nationalists have embarked on a plan to create an independent state by early 2017. Podemos, which advocates territorial unity, is the only party to propose a Scotland-style referendum, in order, it says, to defuse tensions in the northeastern region. Its insistence on the referendum would appear to be a major obstacle to any kind of pact with the Socialists.

Meanwhile, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras tweeted a message of congratulations to Podemos for its election result, saying that “austerity has been politically defeated in Spain too”.