Spain was plunged into political uncertainty on Sunday after national elections failed to produce enough support to form a government, likely triggering weeks of horse-trading or possibly a new vote later this year.
The returns showed that most votes were split between the center right and center left. But neither Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party nor his conservative opponents won enough votes to govern alone in the 350-seat parliament.
As the conservatives came forward, the allies they partnered with to form a government in the right-wing Vox party saw their support crater as Spaniards rejected extremist parties.
The result was an inconclusive election and the political chaos familiar to Spaniards since the breakdown of their two-party system nearly a decade ago. The rotating presidency of the European Council is likely to leave Spain in political limbo at a key moment as it faces Russian aggression in Ukraine.
With a return of 99 percent, the conservative Popular Party won 136 seats in parliament, compared to 122 for the Socialists. But he hoped to win an absolute majority and govern without Vox, which the party’s own officials considered anachronistic, abhorrent to Spain’s moderate values, and dangerous.
“I’m very proud,” party leader Alberto Núñez Feijoo said shortly after midnight, arguing before a crowd waving Spanish flags that after his party won the election, they had the right to form a government.
But his speech had a distinctly defensive tone and he said the candidate who won the most votes always governs, arguing it would be “rare” if that didn’t happen this time and would damage Spain’s reputation abroad. He said his aim was to spare Spain a period of “uncertainty”.
Outside, lyrics of “Tonight’s gonna be a good night” echoed amid the celebratory atmosphere, but supporters understood that it wasn’t really a good night for their party.
“I thought he was going to win big,” said Isabel Ruiz, 24, who draped a Spanish flag over her shoulders. He said he was prepared to vote to remove Mr. Sanchez.
Political chaos is not new to Spain. In 2016, the country spent 10 months in political uncertainty, careening from election to election. Then Mr. Sánchez ousted a conservative prime minister and took power in a parliamentary maneuver in 2018. More elections were held until Mr Sánchez finally cobbled together a minority government and was supported in parliament by smaller independence parties.
This time, Mr. Sánchez, a political survivor of the first order, once again defied expectations, increasing his party’s seats in parliament and gaining enough support with his leftist allies to prevent the formation of a conservative government.
“The Spanish people are clear,” he said outside his party’s headquarters on Sunday evening, arguing that a large number of Spaniards want to stay on the progressive path.
A prime minister can win another term if all available parties support him against the Popular Party and Vox – a very difficult task.
“The reactionary faction has failed,” Mr. Sanchez said.
In the weeks leading up to the election, Mr. Sánchez and his left-wing allies have raised fears about his conservative opponents’ willingness to ally with Vox.
The prospect of Vox sharing power in government dismayed many Spaniards and sent ripples through the European Union and its remaining liberal strongholds, surprising many who considered Spain inoculated against political extremes since the end of the Franco regime in the 1970s.
Liberals argued that Vox’s ascension was a troubling watershed for Spain and another sign of the rise of the right in Europe. Instead, Vox was overwhelmed and the populist party may have diminished its chances of governing with it.
Mr. ruled in Spain for five years. Sánchez will remain the leader of the caretaker government until the formation of a new government or the timing of new elections materializes.
Analysts note that Spain’s voters are tired of the extremes of the right and left and have sought to return to the center. A new election would continue that trend and further reduce Vox’s influence, he said. The populist party will take their votes and hope to grow large enough to govern on its own.
The progressive darling of the European Union, Mr. Sánchez presided over an economic recovery, but he alienated many voters by backtracking on promises and forming alliances with political parties linked to Catalan separatists and former Basque terrorists.
“It was hard for me to decide until the last minute,” said Arnold Merino, 43, who voted for the Popular Party. “People didn’t trust him.”
Mr. Sánchez called the elections early – they had been scheduled for the end of the year – after bruises in local and regional elections in May.
In the closing days of the race, the Socialists and the far-left umbrella group, Sumar, projected optimism about the possibility of turning things around when polls showed them trailing. Billboards around Spain showed Mr Sánchez with the sign “Forward” next to black-and-white images reading “Backward” under the sign “Forward”.
The Popular Party ran short on policy proposals against Mr Sánchez. Conservatives and their right-wing allies Mr. Sánchez ran a campaign criticizing him, or a governing style he called “sanchismo,” saying he could not be trusted because he had broken his word to voters, allied with the left and cut electorally lucrative deals.
Even so, Spain has been a bright spot for liberals in recent years. Mr. Sánchez reduced inflation, eased tensions with separatists in Catalonia, and increased the economic growth rate, pensions, and the minimum wage.
But Mr. An alliance between Sánchez and deeply polarized separatists and far-left forces fueled discontent among many voters. Against Vox’s militancy Mr. The entire campaign, which included Sánchez and his left-wing allies caution, turned the bad company of the allies of the major parties.
And yet, for all the talk about extremism, the results showed that Spanish voters, many of them haunted by decades of terror stemming from the dictatorship and related territorial disputes.
The Vox party, widely seen as an obvious descendant of Franco’s dictatorship, lost 19 seats. It has led opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights and European Union intervention in Spanish affairs, and is anti-immigrant.
“I think people want to go back to bipartisanship, because it provides stability,” Mr. Merino said. “With the populist party, you know what you’re going to get.”
Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, split from the Popular Party in 2013 amid a slush-fund scandal. Vox began with adventures such as draping Gibraltar, the southern tip of the country controlled by Britain since 1713, with the Spanish flag.
It depicts alternate realities in southern Spain where Muslims have imposed Sharia law and converted Cordoba Cathedral into a mosque. In another video, scored to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, a cultural touchstone for Europe’s New Right, Mr. Abascal leads men on horseback to reconquer Europe.
“It’s very symbolic, but it’s beautiful,” said Aurora Rodil, deputy mayor of Vox in the southern town of Elche, which already governs with the Popular Party mayor. “There is so much to recapture in Spain.”
However, Sunday’s polls suggest he has been defeated again.
“Spain is really balanced,” Ramon Campoy, 35, said as he took a break from work Friday in Barcelona, standing under an LGBTQ flag in a square decorated with an equestrian statue of 11th-century Catalan ruler Ramon Berenger III.
Mr. Campoy said, “I think the country is really at the center.”