EU in turmoil as populist surge now reaches Spain

Spain’s governing Socialists (PSOE) won the most seats in Sunday’s election but fell short of winning enough seats for a majority as the Vox Party surged. This marks the continued rise of euro-sceptic parties across the continent.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) came in second with Vox in third place. The media refer to Vox as ‘Far-Right’ but all indications are that it is a populist party that is anti-EU and open borders.

This is Spain’s fourth general election in the same amount of years and was called to try and end uncertainty.

A previous vote in April ended with no clear majority, and the Socialists failed to form a coalition government. At this election the Socialist party won 120 out of a total of 350 seats – three fewer seats than in April’s vote. The PP has 88 seats, up from 66 in the previous poll, while Vox has 52 – up from just 24 in April which is a meteoric rise.

Addressing Socialist supporters after the results came in, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said it was his priority to “form a stable government and do politics for the benefit of the majority of Spaniards”.

“I would like to make a call to all the political parties because they need to act with generosity and responsibility in order to unblock the political situation in Spain.”

Leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen took to Twitter to congratulate Vox’s “staggering progress” while Italian populist Matteo Salvini also spoke of his pleasure at seeing Vox’s success condemining media coverage of the election:

“Not at all racism and fascism, in Italy as in Spain we just want to live peacefully in our own home.”