Partido Popular conservatives win Spain’s general elections

Los Angeles/Madrid (Variety.com): With 96% of votes counted, Mariano Rajoy’s ruling Popular Party looked on track to win Spain’s 26 June general elections, securing 137 seats, some 14 more than at December’s polls but insufficient to form an absolute majority in parliament.

Confounding exit polls, Spain has seen no decisive shift to the left in votes and Spain’s PSOE socialist party remains the dominant party of Spain’s left, winning around 85 seats to the 71 of far-left UnidosPodemos, which has not seen a predicted surge in support to overtake the PSOE.

The PP’s build has come at the expense of center-right Ciudadanos, which has lost eight seats, dropping to 32. The PP’s victory does nothing, however, to break the deadlock in Spanish politics which over the last six months has seen both the PP and PSOE attempting and failing to create alliances which would allow them to govern Spain. Spain’s major political parties will now be under large public pressure to make sacrifices which will allow for a coalition government. Spain has clawed its way out of a double-dip recession over 2008-13, but it needs larger political certainty to buttress a still potentially frail recovery.