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Spanish Socialists Win National Elections While Far-Right Party Surges

Spain moves to the left with a surge of the far right.

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.


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