In the aftermath of elections that failed to achieve a majority, the Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his conservative rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whose party won the largest number of deputies, will begin negotiations to try to avoid new elections.
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Given the loser of the legislative elections by all the polls, the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez managed on Sunday, July 23, to limit the gains of the right-wing opposition and, against all odds, retains a chance to stay in power in extremis thanks to the game of alliances.
After counting more than 99% of the votes, the People’s Party (PP) of its conservative rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo totals 136 seats out of a total of 350 in the Congress of Deputies and the far-right party Vox, its only potential ally, 33 seats.
The PP therefore wins 47 more seats than in the previous elections, in 2019, but is far from the 150 seats that Alberto Núñez Feijóo was aiming for. Above all, the PP and Vox, which has lost ground compared to the last ballot, only total 169 seats, while the absolute majority is set at 176.
“The retrograde bloc of the People’s Party and Vox has been defeated”
The Socialist Party of Pedro Sanchez is credited with only 122 deputies and Sumar, his radical left ally, with 31. But Pedro Sanchez, in power for five years, is paradoxically in a better position than his conservative rival and can hope to stay in power, because he has the possibility of obtaining the support of the Basque and Catalan parties, for whom Vox is a bugbear.
“The retrograde bloc of the People’s Party and Vox has been defeated”, he launched to the socialist militants gathered in front of the headquarters of his party. “There are many more of us who want Spain to continue advancing,” he continued.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, however, claimed victory. The PP “won the election”he launched from the balcony of the party headquarters, affirming his intention to “to form a government” and asking the socialists not to “to block” such a government.