Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party has emerged victorious in Sunday’s general elections in Spain but fallen short of a majority, with no obvious coalitions for a functioning government.
The results come days after the U.K.’s EU referendum, which saw Britons vote to end their country’s 43-year membership to the bloc.
With virtually all votes counted, Popular Party is set to win more seats than it did in the inconclusive December, 2015 elections, but the deadlock remains.
Meanwhile, a big surge in Spain’s far-left party United Podemos, predicted in exit polls and pre-election surveys, failed to materialize, results show.
The traditionally leftist Socialist Party held on to their second-place position, while United Podemos saw zero change in seats since December’s elections, even though they were widely forecast as the new main opposition.
“The results have surprised us all given the expectations,” a somber Pablo Iglesias, the pony-tailed leader of Podemos, told the media late Sunday night.
Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party is up 14 seats compared to December’s election and will hold 137 seats in the new parliament -- still far from the 176 seats needed to govern.
The ruling party took many of their seats from the centrist Cuidadanos Party, which branded itself as an anti-corruption alternative. Cuidadanos dropped eight seats compared to last year.
Many analysts point to the shock of Thursday's 'Brexit' vote as a likely cause of voter’s unpredicted shift away from change and towards familiarity.
Pacts will again be necessary to form a government and avoid a third election. Although the traditional parties had unexpectedly positive results, the Spanish Parliament is still extremely fragmented.
Also in contrast to general expectations that voter participation would drop in Sunday’s repeat elections, the turnout was higher at 69.8 percent on Sunday, Spain’s Interior Ministry reported, compared to 69.7 percent last December.