Spain faces weeks of coalition horse-trading after Socialist victory

AFP :
Spain faces weeks of coalition talks after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists won snap elections without a majority, splitting the right-wing bloc but letting ultra nationalists into parliament.
With the country set to return to the polls on May 26 for regional, local and European Parliament elections, politicians’ appetite for clear commitments was muted Monday and a new government is not likely to be formed before June.
“We should wait and see what will happen in the municipal elections…in many regions and of course in the European Parliament,” the president of the Socialist party told Spanish public radio.
“There is no hurry…we are still campaigning,” she added.
The Socialists came first in Sunday’s snap polls, winning 123 seats out of 350, or close to 29 percent of the vote-short of an absolute majority but much better than the 85 seats it got in the last election in 2016. Nearest rivals the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) bagged just 66 seats compared to 137 in 2016, its worst showing in over two decades.
Conservative votes were split among two other parties, centre-right Ciudadanos and ultra-nationalist Vox party, which won just over 10 percent of the vote in a country that has had no far-right party to speak of since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
The three rightist parties together have 147 seats, far from the 176-seat majority in the 350-seat parliament needed to govern. Sanchez, who came to power in June after ousting PP prime minister Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote, has several options to govern.
He could try to rule on his own as he did during the ten months that he was in power with the backing of far-left Podemos and smaller regional groupings.
“We will try,” Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo told news radio Cadena Ser.
“We think we have more than enough support to be the rudder of this boat which should continue its journey,” she said.
The support of Podemos is a given. The party was weakened in the election, winning 42 seats compared to 67 in 2016, and is not in a position to dictate conditions.