Spain election: Conservatives leading with 90 per cent of votes counted

Madrid [Spain]: As the counting for the Spain election proceeds, the conservative Popular Party (PP) is ahead of the ruling Socialists, Al Jazeera reported.

With more than 90 per cent of votes counted, the conservative PP obtained 136 seats out of 350, short of the absolute majority of 176 seats. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had announced a snap election following the Left’s poor performance in the local and regional elections held in May, reported Al Jazeera.

The far-right Vox party will need to join forces with the centre-right Partido Popular (PP) party in order to form a government, marking the first time a far-right party has held office since Francisco Franco’s dictatorship ended in the 1970s.

Spaniards voted on Sunday, as per Al Jazeera. Along with 208 of the 265 seats in the upper house, all 350 seats in the lower house of parliament will be up for election. In contrast to the upper house, where voters can select up to three regional senators, voters for the lower house must choose a party rather than a single candidate.

The winner will have three weeks to formally constitute their government, and King Felipe VI will meet party leaders to designate a candidate.

While Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the leader of the right-wing PP, is heavily favoured in the polls, his party is not anticipated to achieve a majority, according to Al Jazeera.
For PP, it would entail forming a coalition government with the extreme right-wing Vox party.

A potential PP-Vox government would represent a significant rightward shift for another EU member, continuing a recent trend in Sweden, Finland, and Italy.

However, nations like Germany and France are worried about the potential impact of the change on EU immigration and climate policies, Al Jazeera reported.