On sensations of the Spain parliamentary elections

The scheduled parliamentary elections in Spain, held last Sunday, brought about several sensational results.

Neither the ruling conservative party nor the opposition Socialist Party got enough votes to form the government alone. For that, a party would have needed to gain 176 seats. As the votes are tallied, the People’s Party (PP) of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has 28.71 percent of the vote and 123 of 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of parliament. The runners-up were the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), which can count on 90 seats in the lower house of parliament.

Thus, for the first time after the restoration of democracy in Spain 40 years ago, Spaniards woke up the morning after the election not knowing who will be their next prime minister. Before that, the two parties were usually alternating their rule: the conservative PP and PSOE. By the way, as observers note, both these parties received their all-time lowest numbers of votes in the history of parliamentary elections.