Spain readies for fresh polls in June as parties fail to form coalition

A fresh round of polls could be in the offing for Spain after the country's political parties failed to form a coalition. Voting is expected to take place at the end of next month. 

King Felipe VI was expected to dissolve the parliament in Madrid on Tuesday and restart the polling process, four months after the last elections took place.

None of the parties, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Conservative People's Party, were able to secure a complete majority to form a government despite weeks of talks after the December vote. Chief of the Socialist Party, Pedro Sanchez, was also unable to form a coalition before the deadline ended on Monday, leading to the call for fresh polls.

"We are going back to vote," a reporter of Spain's official RVTE channel said on television.

Polling campaigns were expected to begin on June 10, with the vote expected on June 26.

Spain has been in limbo after no party won a decisive majority in the December 20 elections. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Conservative Party won 28.7 percent of the votes and was unable to find a coalition partner.

The socialist PSOE was able to get the support of the liberal Ciudadanos party, but could not win over the leftist Podemos in order to have enough seats to form the government.

mg/jm (dpa)