Socialists say they will not support Rajoy gov't

Although his Peoples Party (PP) won the Spanish general election on Sunday with an increase in both votes and seats compared with the December general election, acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy still faces a difficult task to form a coalition government after the Socialist Party (PSOE) said on Monday they would not support him.

The PP won 137 seats in the 350 seat Congress, well short of the 176 needed for a majority, while the PSOE saw their support fall from 90 to 85 seats, Unidos Podemos won 71 seats, and Ciudadanos won 32 with regional and nationalist forces winning the rest.

Rajoy has said he will hold talks with all party leaders in order to try and find a solution which will allow him to govern, but it won't be easy.

A pact between the PP and center-right Ciudadanos would still leave Rajoy seven seats short of a majority and with Catalan and Basque nationalists unlikely to support him, the reality is that Rajoy either needs to persuade the Socialists to become the minor partners in a coalition or at the very least for them to abstain to allow him to win a future investiture vote and return to government.

Speaking on Monday, Cesar Luena, the PSOE Organizational Secretary insisted the Socialists would not do that.

"We are not going to support Rajoy either through action or through omission," he said in an interview with radio station, Cadena Ser.

"The votes we have received with in order to change their unjust policies," he continued, before adding the PSOE "would be at the level the circumstances require," but insisting that the aim of the PSOE was to "replace Rajoy," rather than help him remain in power. Endit