Inter-party talks are unlikely to get under way in earnest until after May 26, the date of European, regional and municipal elections. However, relations are poor between the two parties and Ciudadanos has already ruled out helping Sánchez govern. However, Spain’s investiture system means that such support could include abstentions.Īnother possible alliance, offering a less complicated majority, would be between the PSOE and Ciudadanos. To govern they would still need more support, which could come from smaller regional parties and, more controversially, Basque and Catalan nationalists. The Socialists’ most natural ally is Podemos, which appears willing to enter a coalition, although Sánchez would prefer a less formal confidence-and-supply arrangement. The result also offers him a stronger foundation on which to build a new administration. The gains he made on April 28 mean that he now has a political credibility that many critics, casting him as a lightweight, believed he lacked. On winning the motion, Sánchez became Spanish leader, leading a fragile minority government for 10 months before calling this election. Last May, he launched a parliamentary no-confidence motion against the then-prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, whose PP was beset by corruption scandals. Yet the following year, he defied the PSOE old guard to run in the party primary and reclaim the leadership. His relationship with his own party has at times been strained and after leading it to record defeats in the 20 general elections he was eventually removed as leader. This result marks Sánchez’s first election victory in three attempts and completes a remarkable turnaround for the 47-year-old. The fact that it won 24 seats means that for the first time in the democratic era, a far-right party has parliamentary representation. The newest force in parliament is Vox, a radical right-wing party which has further polarized an already divided political arena. To the left of the Socialists, the Unidas Podemos coalition suffered losses, although it hopes to play a key role in the formation of a new government. The PP lost more than half of its seats and is now only just ahead of the center-right Ciudadanos party, which made gains. The collapse of their long-time rival, the conservative Popular Party (PP), underlined the Socialists’ win. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE made substantial gains from their previous 85 seats to score a clear victory on April 28, although with 123 seats in the 350-seat Congress it fell well short of a majority. And although it has given the far right a foothold in parliament, the result suggests a rejection by Spaniards of the radicalism that the country’s Catalan crisis has generated. Spain’s general election has redrawn the country’s political landscape, restoring the center-left Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as the country’s primary force.
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