10 November election delivers another hung....>

SPAIN: 10 November election delivers another hung parliament, with coalition

formation likely to be extremely difficult.

- Incumbent Socialists (PSOE) retained plurality, but with 120 of 350 seats fall

well short of a majority. Even with support from far-left Podemos and all

regionalist parties - excluding those from Catalonia and Basque party EH Bildu -

a PSOE-led leftist coalition would still fall 4 seats short of a majority.

- The major winner in the election was the right-wing nationalist VOX, climbing

to third place with 52 seats. The centre-right PP also gained, up to 88 from 66.

However, the collapse of the centrist Citizens (from 57 to 10 seats) means a

right-wing coalition between these 3 parties would also fall short of a

majority.

- Catalan parties (holding a combined 23 seats) would be kingmakers, but there

is very little chance of any of the parties supporting a PSOE gov't given the

poor relations between Catalonia and Madrid in recent months. 

- PP could support PSOE in 'grand coalition', but has major risks for both

historic rivals. More uncertainty going forward.