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December 20th, 2015 
Awake Goy Prime Minster Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Partido Popular (PP) party is projected to win 26.8 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll conducted by the state broadcaster RTVE.
“PP is the strongest force and the one chosen by the Spanish people,” said its spokesman at a press conference, as the exit polls were announced. The party captured 44 percent of the vote in the last election in 2011.
RTVE said the established Socialist party gained 20.5 percent of the vote, and the anti-austerity Podemos, established less than two years ago, garnered 21.7 percent. Due to the structure of the voting system, pollsters predicted that the Socialists would capture several more seats than Podemos.
The year-old Cuidadanos, considered a reformist, pro-business party, came in fourth place, with an estimated 15.2 percent.
“The two-party political system is over and we are entering a new era in our country,” said Podemos’s deputy Inigo Errejon.
RTVE obtained its results through 180,000 face-to-face interviews outside polling stations.
Voter turnout was 71 percent, two percentage points higher than in the previous election.
A total of 176 seats are necessary to win a majority in Spain’s 350-seat chamber of deputies, meaning that PP, predicted to have 124 deputies at most, will have to strike a deal with one of the runners-up to remain in power.
But Cuidadanos and Podemos have both painted themselves as protest parties, unwilling to be a part of the old political order, with its baggage of corruption and economic hardship. Spanish wages have still not recovered to 2008 levels despite years of austerity implemented by both the Socialists and PP. Unemployment is at 21.6 percent – gradually falling, but still the second-highest in the EU after Greece.
It is possible that Podemos and the Socialists will unite to form a left-wing coalition, though Rajoy said he would attempt to prevent this at all costs.
There are no specific rules stipulating how or when the new government must be sworn into office, and deputies could call for a new vote, if no consensus is reached.
Since Spain’s transition to democracy, following General Franco’s death in 1975, there has never been a coalition government. Without outright majorities, biggest parties have relied on support from minor factions on individual votes.
Source Article from https://www.rt.com/news/326604-spain-general-election-results/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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