Newcomers threaten two-party dominance in Spanish election

A strong showing by a pair of new parties in Spain’s general election is threatening the traditional two-party system, with an exit poll projecting the ruling Popular Party winning the most votes but falling far short of a majority.

The exit poll for the state-owned RTVE channel gave the Popular Party 26.8% of the vote. The main opposition Socialist Party, with 20.5%, was running neck-and-neck for second place with new far-left party Podemos (21.7%), the poll said.

It put support for the new business-friendly Ciudadanos party far behind the others at 15.2%.

Jorge Clemente, spokesman for pollster TNS Demoscopia, says its figures are based on 180,000 face-to-face interviews.

Spain has been dominated for more than three decades by the Popular Party and the Socialists, which have alternated running the government.

The country could end up with a host of coalition government possibilities. The most likely ally for the Popular Party is Ciudadanos, while the centre-left Socialists would probably team up with Podemos.

There is also the possibility of a three-way alliance between the Socialists, Ciudadanos and Podemos.

Days or weeks of negotiations may be needed to determine the outcome — which will be unprecedented because the Socialists and the Popular Party have previously only needed support from tiny Spanish parties to get a majority in parliament when they did not win one from voters.

Podemos and Ciudadanos gained strength by portraying the Popular Party and the Socialists as out-of-touch behemoths run by politicians who care more about maintaining their own power than citizens’ needs.

Spain’s 36.5 million registered voters were electing representatives to the 350-seat lower house of parliament and to the Senate, which has less legislative power.

Voting was brisk with lines outside some polling stations and voter participation of 58.4% by 6pm, up slightly compared to the 2011 election.

Prime minister Mariano Rajoy has said he would seek an alliance to prevent a leftist coalition from taking power — as one did in neighbouring Portugal last month.

The nation’s devastating economic crisis, non-stop corruption scandals and a separatist drive in the north-eastern region of Catalonia have dominated Spanish politics over the past four years.

Mr Rajoy’s administration’s biggest success has been in pulling Spain back from an economic abyss in 2012 and returning the economy to steady growth, but the jobless rate has come down slowly and salaries for people entering the workforce are 30% lower than they were in 2008.

This has fuelled claims by Ciudadanos and Podemos that the Socialists plunged Spain into an economic crisis and the Popular Party has failed to fix the problem.

Mr Rajoy’s party also adopted unpopular austerity measures and labour and financial reforms that are credited with creating jobs but damaging the country’s social welfare system.

Although Spain’s economy is now one of the fastest-growing in the 28-nation EU its unemployment rate is the second-highest in the EU after Greece.