“Deadlock remains as far right makes big gains”: this is the heading with which The Guardian portrays the result of the election held in Spain yesterday, where “the Socialist party won even if the poll failed to ease political impasse”. According to the British paper, “the re-eruption of the Catalan crisis – following the condemnation of the pro-independence leaders – “has helped fuel the rise of Vox, which favours a radical recentralisation of Spain”. However, the article points out that Cup, the Catalan pro-independence left party, “picked up its first two seats in the national parliament”. “Sánchez comes out weaker from its victory and complicates the scenarios on Vox’s election night”, is the heading on the Portuguese paper Diario de Noticias, explaining that “the election that should have eased the Spanish government’s figures has made them more complicated”, because there are 156 members on the left, 152 on the right, while “Sánchez relies on abstentions to be appointed Prime Minister. The absolute majority is 176”.

This morning, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung too describes the results of the election, predicting a tough future for Sanchez: “Chances for dialogue and a reasonable solution will be even narrower, while contrasts grow”. “Spain remains pro-European”, goes on the German newspaper, which believes that the result of the election “reflects the European trend”, since what comes out of the polls “is far from clear in many countries”. According to Le Figaro, “Spain has been going through its worst political crisis since Franco’s death in 1975 and since the reinstatement of democracy”. In the title of the leading article, the current one is, to all intents and purposes, a “Spanish paralysis”, a “symptomatic paralysis that affects Europe’s parliamentary regimes” and that yesterday’s vote failed to cure.