28 December 2015, 16:52 GMT
MADRID (Sputnik) — Spain’s acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Monday that he had not been holding talks with the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) to create a coalition amid a deadlock in the country’s government.
Rajoy’s center-right People’s Party (PP) came first in the December 20 general election, winning 123 seats in the 350-seat Congress, the lower house, but lost the overall majority. Its rival, the center-left PSOE, was a runner-up with 90 seats.
"If the PSOE does not want to negotiate with us, it is difficult to hold talks," Rajoy told the RNE broadcaster in an interview.
The acting prime minister reiterated his intention to establish a broad coalition with the opposition party in order to form a government.
Socialists’ leader Pedro Sanchez ruled out a grand coalition between PP and PSOE in early January. Instead, he suggested a leftist union with third-placed left-wing Podemos party that campaigned on an anti-austerity platform.
