Spain's election: No party received enough votes to form a government

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
(Image credit: Alejandro Martinez Velez / Europa Press via Getty Images)

There was no clear winner in Spain's election on Sunday, with both the governing Socialists and opposition center-right Popular Party failing to win the 176 seats needed to form a government.

With 100% of the votes counted, the Popular Party won 136 seats and the Socialists won 122 seats. The Socialists fared better at the polls than expected, while the Popular Party underperformed. "Spain has been clear," Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told supporters in Madrid. "The bloc of devolution, of retrocession, that wants to take back all we have achieved, of machismo, has failed."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.