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Spain's ruling conservatives win election

Other News Materials 21 December 2015 02:16 (UTC +04:00)
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won Spain's general election on Sunday, exit polls showed
Spain's ruling conservatives win election

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won Spain's general election on Sunday, exit polls showed, but his center-right party fell short of an absolute majority and will need allies if it is to govern for another four-year term, Reuters reported.

If confirmed, such results would give way to coalition-building talks that could take many weeks with no easy pact apparently in reach. The Spanish constitution does not set a specific deadline to form a government after the election.

Despite garnering the most votes, Rajoy's People's Party (PP) got its worst result ever in a general election, polls showed, as Spaniards hurt by a grinding recession and yet to feel an economic recovery turned away in droves from the party.

Newcomers anti-austerity Podemos and liberal Ciudadanos made big gains, coming third and fourth respectively, ending a decades-long two-party political system and ushering in a new and potentially volatile era of compromise politics.

That points to a stalemate, probably disrupting an economic reform program that has helped pull Spain - the fifth-largest economy in the European Union - out of recession and dented a still sky-high unemployment rate.

"This result confirms Spain has entered an era of political fragmentation," said Teneo Intelligence analysts Antonio Barroso. "It's clear that parties will have to negotiate and forming a government could be pretty complicated."

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