MADRID (AP) – Spaniards are voting in a general election Sunday, just six months after a last unsuccessful attempt to pick a new government.
The unprecedented repeat election comes after political parties that won seats in Parliament last December were unable to decide on which of them should take power. A look at what is happening politically in Spain.
WHY IS ANOTHER VOTE NEEDED?
After four years in power, the conservative Popular Party collected most votes in last December’s ballot but didn’t elect enough lawmakers to give it a majority in Parliament, like it had before. Mariano Rajoy, the party’s leader and incumbent prime minister, couldn’t get enough support from rival parties to form either a minority government or a coalition.
The negotiations between parties dragged on for months as Pedro Sanchez, leader of the second-placed Socialists, also failed to clinch a deal that would let him govern.