Spain’s Elections Confirm Defeat of Austerity Policies in Europe – Tsipras

ATHENS (Sputnik) — 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, failed to gain an outright majority. PP’s traditional rival, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), won 90 seats.

"Austerity has suffered a political defeat in Spain. The forces that protect society have emerged on the political scene," Tsipras said in a statement, as quoted by his office.

According to Tsipras, Europe is changing, and the Spanish elections opened the "prospect of a progressive majority government."

Spain’s left-wing Podemos party 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 EU debts.

The Greek economy has also been strained for several years by the country’s multibillion debt, as the country had to be bailed out by the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and certain European countries after it was unable to raise finance to service its debts following the 2008 world economic crisis.

In July, Greece's international creditors signed an agreement with the country's government, approving a third bailout package for Athens worth 86 billion euros (about $95 billion) in exchange for highly unpopular austerity reforms, such as pension cuts and tax hikes.