Spain’s Rajoy claims right to form government after poll win

MADRID – Agence France-Presse

Spain’s acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would make a push for power after his conservatives won more seats in parliament in a repeat general election on June 26, even though it still fell short of a majority.

His Popular Party (PP) was the big winner of the election, the second in six months, which played out amid the turbulence from Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union.

The party, which portrayed itself as the guardian of stability, won 137 seats in the 350-strong lower house of parliament - 14 more than in December 2015 and more than what pre-election polls predicted.

All other parties lost votes or seats, in some cases both.  

The Socialists held on to second place like in December, though with just 85 seats, their worst score in modern history.

The far-left Unidos Podemos coalition came third with 71 seats, reversing pre-election expectations that it could leapfrog over the Socialists and replace them as the main left-wing force.

Market-friendly party Ciudadanos, meanwhile, finished fourth as in December with 32 seats, down from 40, as many of the party’s voters moved back to the PP.

“We won and we demand the right to govern,” Rajoy said as he looked down from a tall podium on a crowd of supporters waving blue flags and shouting “yes we can!” - stealing Podemos’ key catchphrase.

“It’s been hard, it’s been difficult, it’s been complicated, but we put up a fight for Spain,” he added.

But while the PP boosted its seats, it still faces the same challenges to form a government as after the December polls when Podemos and Ciudadanos uprooted the country’s two-party dominance.

Without a majority, it will need to seek the outright or tacit support of other parties to get a coalition or minority government through.

The combined total number of seats if PP teams up with Ciudadanos, their natural ally, is not enough to form a majority center-right government so they may need to court the Socialists too or smaller regional parties.

But other parties have been reluctant to back the PP, which has been tainted by a string of corruption scandals and anger over high unemployment and the steep public spending cuts it has put in place.

Rajoy on June 27 said he hoped political parties would reach a deal within a month to enable a government of his conservative party. 

“I have to try to reach a majority to govern because without it, it’s very difficult, very complex,” Rajoy told Cope radio station after the PP emerged on June 26 with the single biggest bloc of seats in the country’s second parliamentary election in six months but fell short of a majority. 

“I believe that within a month we should have a deal on the basics. It would be nonsense to lose time for several more months,” he also said.