Elections held in Spain on Sunday resulted in a virtual dead heat, with the right-wing Popular Party, and the governing Socialist Party locked at about a third of the vote each.
The Popular Party, led by Alberto Nunez Feijoo, won 33.1% of the vote, giving it 136 seats in Spain’s 350-member Congress of Deputies. This is almost 50 seats more than it won in the last election.
The Socialist Party, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, was the second-biggest party with 31.7% of the vote and 122 seats, a slight increase over the 120 it won previously.
The result means a hung parliament. One of the two biggest parties will have to form a coalition with other smaller parties to govern.
Nine other parties fared well enough to win seats, including Vox, which was the third-biggest party, with 33 seats, a decline of 19 seats. Vox has been described by some observers as far-right.
Neither the Popular Party nor the Socialists have a clear path to forming a coalition with the other parties in the Spanish Parliament. There is speculation that another election may be necessary to break the deadlock.
[Photo: Karabo_Spain for Pixabay]