‘Anti-EU’ party loses in Spanish general elections as Brexit backfires

Spanish voters have chosen to support pro-European Union political parties in the June 26 general elections, which were held just days after Britain's decision to leave the EU. The outcome apparently reflects the backlash of extremely strong public anxiety that has been sweeping across the European continent after last week's Brexit decision.

In defiance of the expectations that Unidos Podemos, the coalition of Podemos and IU that called for anti-EU, will prevail in the recent general elections, the coalition only ranked third (71 seats). Instead, the People’s Party, a center-right party with a pro-EU stance, became the largest party (137 seats), while the center-left PSOE (the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) became the runner-up (85 seats). The Spanish elections has produced outcome that is effectively the opposite of the British referendum.

Podemos, which was founded in 2011, has been expanding its forces by opposing the EU’s contractionary policy on Spain and urging change of the EU, but failed to secure satisfactory outcome in the elections. Analysts say that possible robust spread of anti-EU in the European continent, which was feared after Brexit, has started to slow down. Compared with the outcome of the previous general elections, which took place on December 20, 2015, the People’s Party saw its seats increase by 14, while Unidos Podemos, which trumped anti-EU policy, only managed to add two seats. Other parties ended up losing three to eight seats each. Spanish voters have opted to back the ruling People’s Party to pursue stability rather than drastic changes such as Brexit.

The recent elections were held again since the previous general elections failed to produce a party with majority seat (176 seats) and parties failed to form a coalition government. However, since no parties have secured parliamentary majority again this time, political landscape in Spain will inevitably be chaotic for the time being.

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