The main opposition conservative People’s Party took less than 17%, its worst showing in its 30-year history. Many of its former supporters defected to the far-right Vox party, which won 10% after taking a hard-line stance against Catalan secessionism. Vox becomes Spain’s first significant far-right movement since the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in 1975.

Many European countries are becoming harder to govern as old party systems dominated by moderate conservatives and moderate social democrats give way to splintered parliaments featuring anti+ +establishment insurgents, including on the far left, the far right, the liberal center and, in Spain’s case, regional nationalists.

“This is a trend unfolding in all Europe,” said Federico Santi, an analyst at political-risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, who attributed it to “the low ability of traditional parties to face the demands of voters brought by globalization, such as immigration and rise of international trade. This has triggered the decline of mainstream parties and the emergence of other political movements, in some cases with extreme positions.”

Eoin Treacy's view

Does this result make additional stimulative measures from the ECB more or less likely. I suspect it is the latter.