Spain's Podemos Rejects Idea of Coalition With Winning People's Party

The Podemos party, which came third in Spain's parliamentary elections, will not form a coalition with the People's Party that won the race.

MADRID (Sputnik) — Spain's Podemos party will not enter into a coalition with the People's Party (PP) led by the country's current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said Monday.

"Podemos will not support PP's rule neither by active vote or by passive," Iglesias said at a press conference.

Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP) won the general elections, securing 123 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Congress of Deputies, but, crucially, it failed to gain an outright majority. PP’s traditional rival, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), won 90 seats.

Spain’s left-wing Podemos party, founded in 2014, came third in the elections with 69 seats in the 350-seat parliament. It campaigned on a platform that calls for the renegotiation of unpopular austerity measures mandated in order to pay back the country's EU debts.