Spanish voters went to the polls yesterday in national elections. And it looks like everybody lost, with neither bloc winning a majority.
The elections had been called early after the (former fascist) People's Party and (actually fascist) Vox had swept local elections, causing the Socialist government to panic. But in the end the PP and Vox could only muster 169 seats in the 350 seat Congress. Meanwhile, the Socialists and the left-wing Sumar managed 153. And in between there's a bunch of mostly Catalan and Basque regionalist parties, who both the main blocs hate. They're never going to vote for a PP/Vox government, given the latter's desire to eliminate their languages and end their autonomy - but the Socialists have broken the promises they gave to these parties to secure power last time, and started their campaign with an explicit "fuck you" to them. The gambit here will be the usual "are you really going to let fascists into government?"; the problem is that after years of mistreatment enabled by this bullshit, some of those parties might just say "fuck you" right back, and trust in the power to roll the government whenever they want to limit its abuses, rather than clearly worthless promises. Which is a high-risk strategy, and another way for everyone to lose.
If no government can be formed, then it will be back to the polls, just as happened in 2019. Given that the socialists called the election early for fear of a bigger loss if they waited, hopefully they'll have a strong incentive to avoid that result.
