On Tuesday, 26 April 2016, Spain’s King Felipe VI announced that the second general election in just six months would be held on 26 June. The date was confirmed once the parliament in Madrid was officially dissolved on 3 May. This followed months of failed negotiations to form a government following the previous election on 20 December 2015. On Sunday June 26, Spain voted in the first repeat election in the country’s democratic history.

The December 2015 Election and Aftermath
The December election had been heralded as the end of the traditional two-party Spanish system which had been dominated by the Partido Popular (PP) and the Partido Socialista Obrero Espãnol, the Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), since 1978, meaning Spain has never had a coalition government. The results of the December vote indicated that forming a coalition was the only way forward: the PP won 123 seats, accounting for 28.7% of the vote; the PSOE achieved 22% of the vote, which gave them 90 seats; the left wing party Podemos received 20.7% of the vote which entitled them to 69 seats; while Ciudadanos, the centrist Citizens party, obtained 40 seats on 13.9% of the vote; the remaining 14.7% was divided between smaller parties. In the aftermath of the election, negotiations to form a government began. King Felipe first offered his vote of confidence to the leader of the PP, acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and then called on the Socialist leader, Pedro Sanchez to form a minority coalition. When both attempts failed, the king withdrew from negotiations with the party leaders.

June Repeat Election
Turnout for the 26 June election was 70%, down from 73.2% in December. The PP won 137 seats on 33% of the vote, an increase of 14 seats since the previous election. PSOE secured 85 seats on 23% of the vote. Podemos took 71 seats on 21% of the vote. Ciudadanos won 32 seats on 13% of the vote. The remaining 25 seats were divided between smaller parties. Once again neither of the potential coalition blocs has reached the requisite number of 176 seats to form a majority government. On the left Podemos and the PSOE won a combined total of 156 seats, and on the centre-right, PP and Ciudadanos together have won 169 seats.

Stalemate
Opinion polls had predicted the PP would gain more seats than the PSOE, and that there would be a lower turnout indicating the mood of the country after months of fruitless negotiations. The conservative PP winning 137 seats was said to have been aided by the atmosphere following the UK’s vote to leave the EU. As Europe reacted to the ‘Brexit’ news, the Spanish market was badly hit with Madrid’s stock exchange index plunging by 12.4% on Friday and Banco Santander suffering significant market losses.

For the second time in six months, the formation of a coalition is necessary to end this political stalemate. The 8 seat loss suffered by Ciudadanos has been attributed to a failed attempt to form a coalition with Podemos which may have caused some of their conservative supporters to revert to the PP in the lead-up to the June election. The support of two of the moderate regional parties that won some of the remaining 25 seats, one from the Basque region and the other from the Canary Islands, will be needed by a centre-right alliance headed by Mr Rajoy, to form a minority government. However, Albert Rivera the leader of Ciudadanos has said that Mr Rajoy would have to step down as leader of the PP before his party would join a centre-right alliance. Even if the acting Prime Minister gains the support of the reluctant Ciudadanos and the moderate regional parties, he would still be one seat short of the 176 majority he needs. Mr Rajoy has said that he will speak with the leaders of all other political parties, starting with the PSOE, ruling nothing out in an effort to end the deadlock before the first sitting of the parliament which is scheduled to take place on July 19.

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