Spain's electoral gridlock dents Europe's far-right swing but leaves too many questions unanswered

The Spanish general election was expected to be a bellwether for the political direction of the European Union as a whole.

Transcript

00:00 The unexpected election result in Spain gives some respite to those in Brussels who fear

00:05 the strengthening of the extreme right.

00:07 Like in several European countries such as Italy, Sweden or Finland, the Spanish Vox

00:12 party suffered a sharp decline with almost 20 fewer seats in parliament.

00:17 A result that had already been predicted in the polls and to which is added the fact that

00:21 it's almost impossible for the conservative popular party to form a government.

00:26 So is Spain an exception or has the rise of the far right slowed in Europe?

00:31 Well, you can't say that now that the far right has stopped in Spain, we're going to

00:38 see a wave of reaction against the far right in other parts of Europe because they are

00:43 different far rights, because they are far rights that have not come from the same place

00:48 nor go to the same place.

00:49 And I also think that in this case, Vox in particular, will have a hard time getting

00:57 up after the "debacle" yesterday, although it was a "debacle" already announced.

01:06 The elections were held in the middle of the EU Council presidency, which Spain holds until

01:11 December.

01:12 The complicated vote total opens the door to several options that could include a month's

01:16 long deadlock or a repeat election.

01:23 Brussels can give mixed feelings.

01:26 On the one hand, I think it will surely be a satisfaction for them that the far right

01:31 in Spain has not yet finished having an important result, that it has fallen and that it will

01:36 not be able to condition a new government either.

01:39 But in any case, the arithmetic to form a new government is a bit uncertain, a bit

01:45 unstable and it is not clear whether the current coalition government will be able to be revalidated

01:49 and it is also not clear whether we will see each other in a couple of months, three months,

01:53 in an electoral repetition.

01:55 So obviously that adds uncertainty in the middle of the rotating presidency of Spain

02:00 and the Council of the European Union.

02:03 The longer it takes to form a government, the more complicated it will be for the country

02:07 to focus on the European presidency.

02:10 Spain is the EU's fourth largest economy and the Commission needs Madrid's support to push

02:15 through key legislation, such as electricity market reform and the migration pact.

02:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]