Spain’s far right doubles seats in hung parliament, difficult talks ahead

MADRID, (Reuters) - Spain’s far-right Vox party more than doubled its number of lawmakers in the country’s fourth national election in four years, which delivered a deeply fragmented parliament, setting the stage for very difficult government negotiations.

The Socialists of acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who had gambled that a repeat parliamentary election would strengthen his hand, finished first but with fewer seats than in the previous ballot in April and further away from a majority, the near-final official results showed.

“One way or another we’ll form a progressive government and unblock the political stalemate ... We call upon all the political parties, except for those that work against coexistence and foster hatred,” Sanchez said.

The figures pointed to a legislative stalemate with neither the left nor right having a majority.

The outcome will require party leaders to be creative, negotiate seriously this time and, for some, swallow their pride, after higher abstention rates on Sunday showed that voters are tired of being called repeatedly to the ballot box.

“Now they’ll have to negotiate, people don’t want a third election,” said Isabel Romero, 65-year-old pensioner who voted for the Socialists, complaining that abstention was already high.

The most likely outcome appeared to be a minority Socialist government. The bigger question would be who its allies could be and how long such a government could last.

The conservative People’s Party (PP) was second and Vox third, mostly at the expense of the centre-right Ciudadanos, which slumped from 57 seats to just 10. Various potential solutions to unblock the stalemate, however, involve Ciudadanos, alongside regionalist parties.

Vox won 52 seats, up from the 24 seats with which it debuted in parliament in April. Its increase in the number of votes across Spain was smaller, however, rising by a third.

Spain had long appeared immune to a nationalist surge that has swept through other parts of Europe in recent elections, with many still remembering the military dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

But anger with political gridlock and with secessionist unrest in Catalonia appeared to have significantly boosted Vox’s popularity.