PP (28.7%//123 seats) [Liberal conservatism]
Translated as ''People's Party'', despite gaining the most votes, it was clear since the very day we voted that Mariano Rajoy was not going to be PM again. His party lost 16 points and 63 seats since 2011, and even if they gathered support from Ciudadanos, they would only amount to 163 of the 176 seats needed for a majority. No other party was willing to offer them support.
PSOE (22.0%//90 seats) [Social-democracy]
Translated as 'Spanisg Socialist Workers' Party', the typical left-of-centre social-democrat party in Europe. After having their worst result since 1977 in 2011, this election they were able, somehow, of losing another 7 points and having their worst result since the 1930's, they even managed to have a better result in the 1936 general election, that eventually led to the civil war. However, they remained the second largest party and the King ordered them to try to form a government.
In their political ''convention'', they decided to rule out any coalition with the PP, and also with the nationalists or regionalists, which emant that the only way for Pedro Sanchez to reach the government was if Podemos and Ciudadanos both agreed to form a coalition. After signing an agreement only with Ciudadanos and then asking Podemos for them to support it, but not offering neither changes in the PSOE-C's agreement, nor cabinet positions, Podemos decided to submit it to an internal referendum.
Podemos (20.7%//69 seats) [left-wing]
'Podemos' means 'We can', and since the 2014 European election, they've been going up election after election. In those elections they had a surprise result and came in 4th with 8% of the vote and 5 MEP's; in the 2015 regional elections they took 14% of the vote and stunned analysts after Podemos-supported parties managed to win or at least form coalition governments in many city councils, such as Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz, A Coruña... etc. Indeed, Podemos or podemos-aligned parties have now rule the city councils of around 10 million Spaniards, more than any other party, and fuelled. They were expected to have quite a dissapointing showing in the December elections, but again managed to beat expectations and took in more than 20% of the vote, and beating the socialists in 8 of the 17 regions.
They pushed for a government that included PSOE, Podemos and IU, with Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) as president, and 7 ministeries for the socialists, 6 for them and 1 for IU, with a programme that included proposals from PSOE and Podemos-IU. To do this they needed the support or abstention of some nationalists, and although they gave signals that they could support this government, the PSOE voted to deny support from the nationalists. After the PSOE-C's agreement, they started to fall in the polls as they were successfully portrayed as the ones that prevented a government to form, but after some errors commited by the PSOE and Ciudadanos, which led many spaniards to think that they had signed that agreement just to rule out Podemos and force new elections without being blamed, support for the PSOE-C's pact started to go down and Podemos has, again, piped the socialists in many polls and they are exploring an agreement with IU (United Left) that could take around 25% of the vote
Ciudadanos (13.9%//40 seats) [social liberalism]
It was quite a tough night for them December the 20th, but they initially played quite well after allingning themselves with the PSOE, rather than the PP (which has become quite a toxic party). However, as I've explained before, this agreement is now seen badly by most spaniards, with a notable exception: Ciudadanos voters, which seem quite mobilized and could have some gains in the June, 26th elections. As long as they don't lose some 6 points (again) in the round-up.
IU (3.7%//2 seats) [eurocommunism, left-wing]
Despite gaining almost a million votes, they only got 2 seats as we don't have a proportional seat-allocation method. They are exploring a coalition with Podemos that could definetely allow a left-wing government (with, most surely, Pablo Iglesias or another Podemos politican as PM). After the election they have sky-rocketed in some polls, reaching almost 8%, but they are right now somewhere near 6%.
Translated as ''People's Party'', despite gaining the most votes, it was clear since the very day we voted that Mariano Rajoy was not going to be PM again. His party lost 16 points and 63 seats since 2011, and even if they gathered support from Ciudadanos, they would only amount to 163 of the 176 seats needed for a majority. No other party was willing to offer them support.
PSOE (22.0%//90 seats) [Social-democracy]
Translated as 'Spanisg Socialist Workers' Party', the typical left-of-centre social-democrat party in Europe. After having their worst result since 1977 in 2011, this election they were able, somehow, of losing another 7 points and having their worst result since the 1930's, they even managed to have a better result in the 1936 general election, that eventually led to the civil war. However, they remained the second largest party and the King ordered them to try to form a government.
In their political ''convention'', they decided to rule out any coalition with the PP, and also with the nationalists or regionalists, which emant that the only way for Pedro Sanchez to reach the government was if Podemos and Ciudadanos both agreed to form a coalition. After signing an agreement only with Ciudadanos and then asking Podemos for them to support it, but not offering neither changes in the PSOE-C's agreement, nor cabinet positions, Podemos decided to submit it to an internal referendum.
Podemos (20.7%//69 seats) [left-wing]
'Podemos' means 'We can', and since the 2014 European election, they've been going up election after election. In those elections they had a surprise result and came in 4th with 8% of the vote and 5 MEP's; in the 2015 regional elections they took 14% of the vote and stunned analysts after Podemos-supported parties managed to win or at least form coalition governments in many city councils, such as Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz, A Coruña... etc. Indeed, Podemos or podemos-aligned parties have now rule the city councils of around 10 million Spaniards, more than any other party, and fuelled. They were expected to have quite a dissapointing showing in the December elections, but again managed to beat expectations and took in more than 20% of the vote, and beating the socialists in 8 of the 17 regions.
They pushed for a government that included PSOE, Podemos and IU, with Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) as president, and 7 ministeries for the socialists, 6 for them and 1 for IU, with a programme that included proposals from PSOE and Podemos-IU. To do this they needed the support or abstention of some nationalists, and although they gave signals that they could support this government, the PSOE voted to deny support from the nationalists. After the PSOE-C's agreement, they started to fall in the polls as they were successfully portrayed as the ones that prevented a government to form, but after some errors commited by the PSOE and Ciudadanos, which led many spaniards to think that they had signed that agreement just to rule out Podemos and force new elections without being blamed, support for the PSOE-C's pact started to go down and Podemos has, again, piped the socialists in many polls and they are exploring an agreement with IU (United Left) that could take around 25% of the vote
Ciudadanos (13.9%//40 seats) [social liberalism]
It was quite a tough night for them December the 20th, but they initially played quite well after allingning themselves with the PSOE, rather than the PP (which has become quite a toxic party). However, as I've explained before, this agreement is now seen badly by most spaniards, with a notable exception: Ciudadanos voters, which seem quite mobilized and could have some gains in the June, 26th elections. As long as they don't lose some 6 points (again) in the round-up.
IU (3.7%//2 seats) [eurocommunism, left-wing]
Despite gaining almost a million votes, they only got 2 seats as we don't have a proportional seat-allocation method. They are exploring a coalition with Podemos that could definetely allow a left-wing government (with, most surely, Pablo Iglesias or another Podemos politican as PM). After the election they have sky-rocketed in some polls, reaching almost 8%, but they are right now somewhere near 6%.
After a historic election result, in which the two-party system that had dominated Spain since 1977 suffered a great defeat, political parties had no idea of how to handle the negotiations. Finnally, after 4 months without government, time has run out for them and new elections will be automatically held on June, 26th.
The negotiations were doomed from the start, on one hand, the left had been thinking for months they had no chances of forming a government whatsoever, as pre-election polls put the PP-C's bloc way ahead, with some polls giving them 200 seats (176 needed for a majority). When the elections came, Podemos had a surprisingly good result, over 20%, and Ciudadanos plummeted to 14%, although polls had been showing them neck-and-nech with the PSOE, and way ahead Podemos.
However, this late surge was not enough for Podemos, and not only they weren't able to pip the socialists, but also the left wasn't able to win a majority (gaining 161 seats); but neither was the left, with 163
The negotiations were doomed from the start, on one hand, the left had been thinking for months they had no chances of forming a government whatsoever, as pre-election polls put the PP-C's bloc way ahead, with some polls giving them 200 seats (176 needed for a majority). When the elections came, Podemos had a surprisingly good result, over 20%, and Ciudadanos plummeted to 14%, although polls had been showing them neck-and-nech with the PSOE, and way ahead Podemos.
However, this late surge was not enough for Podemos, and not only they weren't able to pip the socialists, but also the left wasn't able to win a majority (gaining 161 seats); but neither was the left, with 163
Opinion polling:
