No clear winner emerged in a nail-biting finish to Spain’s election yesterday as the right-wing failed to fulfil predictions of a victory big enough to push Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez from power.
The two leading parties will seek to negotiate coalition deals in pursuit of a governing majority but analysts warned the process could end in a hung parliament and another election.
After the final counting, the opposition centre-right People’s Party had 136 seats in parliament while the ruling Socialists had 122 seats.
Both were short of the 176 seats needed to govern.
But the Socialists performed better than forecast while the PP failed to clinch a predicted clear majority, injecting drama into the vote counting.
The parties with the greatest potential to be kingmakers were nearly even with far-right Vox on 33 and far-left Sumar on 31 seats.
The result meant that Sanchez went from likely outgoing premier to a potential contender to form another government.
It also all but torpedoed the prospect of a far-right party taking part in another European government as pollsters had projected with a PP and Vox coalition.
#Spainelections2023result #Pedrosanchez #Albertonunez ~PR.153~ED.194~HT.178~
