Spain Vote Stalemate Leads To Another Election

After Sunday’s election, neither the conservative People’s Party (PP) nor the governing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party is likely to have enough support to rule.

Photo Insert: PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo could shorten the pain by declining to form a government, paving the way for another poll in the autumn

But PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo could shorten the pain by declining to form a government, paving the way for another poll in the autumn, Francesco Guerrera wrote in an analysis for Reuters Breakingviews.

“El Gobierno, en el aire” – “The government, up in the air”. Monday’s front page of El Pais newspaper said it best.

The snap election called by left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in May failed to deliver either bloc the 176 seats needed to govern. Spanish voters gave a center-right PP-led coalition a maximum of 169 parliamentary seats even if it forms a controversial alliance with the far-right Vox party.

Sánchez’s PSOE, together with the far-left Sumar party, can only get to 153.

Spanish shares traded on Monday and yields on 10-year government bonds also fell. The best way to cut short the political gridlock – and get on with tackling Spain’s unemployment and shaky public finances – will be for Feijóo to refuse King Felipe VI’s offer to form a government, as his predecessor Mariano Rajoy did in 2015.

Since Sánchez is also unlikely to muster enough support, that would give Spaniards another chance to choose a leader in cooler conditions.

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