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."

The far-right Vox Party, which has called for an end to progressive laws for women and a reversal of LGBTQ+ rights, lost 19 of its 52 seats, but had it been able to garner a little more support, Vox could have formed a conservative coalition with the Popular Party. This would have put Spain "on the cusp of its furthest right government since the death of its longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975," The Washington Post reported.

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Sanchez could stay in power if the blocs opposed to both the Popular Party and Vox throw their support behind him. If no governing coalition can be formed and there's a hung parliament, Spaniards may have to head to the polls yet again; already, there have been five elections in eight years.

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.