Spanish Socialists Win National Elections While Far-Right Party Surges

The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) led by its leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, won in national elections on Sunday, April 28, but needs to form a coalition with the leftist Podemos and regionalist parties. The center-left social democratic party took 29% of the popular vote, winning 123 seats in the 350-seat lower Congress of Deputies. While it is expected that PSOE will form a governing majority coalition with Podemos, which won 42 seats, it will need to rely on other regionalist political parties from Spanish regions such as Basque Country and Catalonia. 

The center-right conservative People’s Party won only 66 seats while the center-right liberal Ciudadanos won 57 seats and the newly formed right-wing populist Vox party won 10% of the popular vote or 24 seats, which marks the party’s first time to be elected at the national level. Overall, voter turnout nationwide was almost 76%, higher than previous elections in recent years.

If PSOE can form a government majority coalition of 176 seats, Sanchez promised his supporters as well as voters to deal with a wide variety of domestic issues regarding Catalan independence, ending austerity measures, combating corruption and immigration reform.