In Spain’s election, Socialist Party strengthens hold on parliament

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party strengthened its hold on the government Sunday in the country’s third national election since 2015, with nearly complete results showing growing political polarisation and party fragmentation.

The elections came after an abrupt change of government in June, when Pedro Sánchez and his Socialist Party used a corruption scandal to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party in a parliamentary vote.

Late Sunday, Sánchez, the prime minister, declared victory again, even though his party fell short of an absolute majority in Parliament and he will need to find coalition partners to form a government. The Socialists won 123 of the 350 seats in Parliament, with 99.9% of the votes counted.

An anti-immigration and ultranationalist party, Vox, won its first seats in Parliament, a major shift in a country that long appeared to be immune to the spread of far-right movements across Europe, in part because of the legacy of the Francisco Franco dictatorship. But its 10% share of the vote left it in no position to play kingmaker and help form a governing coalition.

Sánchez told supporters that his Socialist Party had “sent a message to the world that it’s possible to win against regression and authoritarianism.”

The latest election took place amid a long-running conflict in Catalonia, which was a major issue in the vitriolic campaign. Right-wing politicians accused Sánchez of treason for trying to negotiate with separatist politicians in Catalonia; the talks got nowhere. The Socialists, on the other hand, warned that the emergence of Vox could help return Spain to the nationalism of the Franco dictatorship.

On Sunday, 76% of the electorate turned out, about 9 percentage points higher than in the previous election, in 2016.

Amid the high turnout, the main opposition, the Popular Party, had the worst performance in its history, winning only half the seats it got in 2016.

“I don’t think it’s possible to exaggerate the scale of this debacle,” said Cristina Ares, a professor of politics at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

The defeat could help force the ouster of Pablo Casado, who replaced Rajoy as party leader shortly after Sánchez won office.

©2019 New York Times News Service