Spain's Socialists are open to negotiating deals with rivals

Spain’s Socialist party is ready to negotiate deals with rival parties on certain topics after it won a general election but failed to obtain a parliamentary majority, a senior Socialist official said Tuesday.

The comments by Isabel Celaa, the spokeswoman for the Socialist caretaker government, seemed to indicate that the Socialists, who came first in Sunday’s general election by winning 29% of the vote, are not rushing into creating a possible coalition government.

After capturing 123 seats in the 350-seat parliament in Sunday’s ballot, the Socialists need to get the support of smaller rival parties to pass legislation. But Socialist officials have insisted, since the vote, that they are not looking for government coalition partners who could help them reach the 176 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.

The Socialist party is capable of running the country as a minority government, Celaa told reporters Tuesday after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

But, she said, the Socialists “are open to talking to everybody” on certain topics that might smooth the government’s work. That could include occasional pacts in areas like the economy or social issues.

However, Celaa said the Socialists “are not ruling anything out” and have “plenty of experience in deal-making.”

She said Spain “needs to build bridges” after a spell of political instability, which includes the nine months before the election when the Socialists ran a minority government that collapsed after parliament rejected its spending plan.

Spain’s political parties are currently still jousting as they campaign for regional and local government elections, as well as a European Parliament election, on May 26.

“We have time,” Celaa said of potential cross-party agreements. “We are just beginning.”

The new parliament in Madrid opens on May 21, and will have to approve any minority government or coalition government before that government takes office.