Good news from Spain, the Socialist Party has won the election with Prime Minister who is pro EU, Pedro Sanchez, winning the majority of seats. There was a fear that for the first time since the fall of Franco, a far right party VOX, would gain a large number of seats , although this proved not to be the case, they have won 24 out of a total number of 250. The socialists will need to form a coalition with other parties from the left and centre to form a government.
This new government will be a re-hash of the one before, except that the Socialists (PSOE) will have a larger percentage share of the any coalition. However, PSOE still represents only 29% of the seats in the parliament, The extreme left group (Podemos) has 14% of the seats.
However, the Socialist leader says that rather than form a coalition he may decide to govern as a minority government, getting support from different parties according to each proposal. That way he can play the extreme left against the centre right and the regional parties at will. He's a cunning leader - so it might well work.
The local Spanish to whom I have spoken simply shrug!
You can read more about it here:
[elpais.com]
They won't be able to pursue a very left-wi ng agenda, which is what is needed. As in the UK there has been a sad deterioration in the health service as the result of cuts under previous governments, and little progress on much needed reforms in education And taxation. Good news, though, since it could have been much worse. Frightening to see the horrifying Vox get seats.
Since they will most likely have to form a coalition with "Podemos", which is basically the extreme left, plus a few left leaning regional parties, PSOE will be the most right wing partner of the coalition. They will be the ones trying NOT to pursue an excessively left-wing agenda, in fact. Vox got most of their votes from hard right wing supporters of the People's Party (PP), fed up with the flood of immigrants which Northern Europe, especially UK, refuses to absorb.