Outgoing premier Rajoy wins the Spanish elections and the People's Party are confirmed as the first party, gaining 13 seats, but once again a government majority does not emerge from the polls. The PSOE holds, losing only 5 seats and remains the second largest party in Spain. Podemos largely disappoints which, despite the electoral agreement with Izquierda Unida, does not go beyond the results of the last February elections and fails in the duel with the socialists. The centrists of Ciudadanos collapse, losing 8 seats.
In detail, the People's Party of outgoing premier Mariano Rajoy won with 33% and 137 seats out of 350 in the Congress of Deputies. The Psoe gets 22,7% and 85 deputies, Podemos 21,1% and 71 seats, Ciudadanos 13% and 32 seats.
On balance there is no majority: the quorum is 176 seats, but the PP stops far below and would not reach it even by allying itself with Ciudadanos. There are no conditions for a left-wing government.
"We claim the right to govern, because we have won," said the leader of the PP, Mariano Rajoy, in front of a crowd of cheering supporters in front of the headquarters of the party, in calle Genova, in Madrid. "From tomorrow - he added - we will start talking to everyone" in view of the formation of a future government.
Only two alternatives remain on paper, both problematic: either the grand coalition between the People's Party and the Socialists but only if one or both leaders (Rajoy and Sanchez) decide to take a step back, or a caretaker government, but we don't see a personality capable of undertaking such an assignment.
Maybe someone will remember that, if it had an electoral law like the Italicum, Spain would already have a government that it doesn't even remotely glimpse now.
