Even though the map looks mostly blue, the prospects of resolving the political stalemate in Spain do not look good. To achieve an overall majority, the PP needed 176 seats and as it happened they got 133 with 33% of the vote. That was an improvement on the 123 seats with 29% of the vote they got in December but no where near enough to govern on their own. It was the failure of previous attempts to agree a coalition that sparked a re-run of the ballot in the first place, and Sunday's election resulted in no major changes.
So now we are back to the situation where deals have to be struck. The two left wing parties, PSOE and Podemos only have 159 seats between them and the PP combined with the centrist party, Ciudadanos have 169. A PP/Cuidadanos coalition would need the support of some of the minority parties to reach the 176 barrier. Could that happen? Who knows!
What we do know is that, if Spain had a first past the post system (as in Britain), then the PP would have romped home.
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