We’re wrapping up our live coverage for the night. With 100% of the vote counted, Spain’s snap election has yielded a fragmented result that will yield weeks – if not months – of dealmaking attempts.
While the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, won the most seats in the election, the party’s 136 seats will not be enough to topple the Socialists’ Pedro Sánchez. Even with Vox’s 33 seats, the two parties will fall short of the 176 seats needed for a majority in Spain’s parliament. The results stand in sharp contrast to the outcome predicted by pollsters for this snap general election.
Instead this snap election saw Sánchez again prove to be one of Europe’s most resilient politicians. Between the Socialists’ 122 seats – a slight increase over the 120 seats won last election – and Sumar’s 31 seats, the left bloc could manage to cobble together enough support in the coming months to take power. If not, Spain will again have to head to the polls.
You can read our full story of tonight’s election here:
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The Associated Press has crunched the numbers, reporting that the bloc that could likely support Sánchez’s return to power in Spain totals 172 seats. In contrast, the right bloc, led by the PP, sits at 170 seats.
As I mentioned earlier, the fragmented result means that the hardline Catalan separatist party Junts per Catalunya is now in the position of kingmaker.
“We won’t make Pedro Sánchez PM in exchange for nothing,” the party’s leader, Míriam Nogueras, said earlier tonight after it became clear that her party could play a decisive role in ushering in Spain’s new government.
While the PP won the most seats in the election, political analyst Verónica Fumanal described the win as a “Pyrrhic victory” as the party will likely not be able to form government. “I see a deadlock scenario in the parliament,” she told the Associated Press.
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