Spain’s general election yesterday – the third in four years – revealed a deserved winner and a big loser, as well as signalling the start of a lengthy coalition-forming process. The country’s five main political parties performed more or less exactly as the polls had suggested they would. Pedro Sánchez’s centre-left Socialist party (the PSOE) is still the largest group in congress and secured 28.7 per cent of the vote (although it’s still short of a majority). Trailing in a distant second place was the conservative Popular Party (PP), with 16.7 per cent – its worst ever result. Third place went to the centre-right Ciudadanos (15.9 per cent), fourth to leftist Podemos (14.3 per cent) and fifth to far-right newcomer Vox (10.3 per cent).
Sánchez, the PSOE figurehead, deserves his victory, which has increased the Socialists’ seats in congress from 84 to 123. Since becoming Spain’s Prime Minister, after ousting the former PP leader Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote last June, Sánchez has achieved much to be proud of.
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