To some, it may look like a case of “be careful what you wish for”. The Spanish were supposed to crave a different sort of politics: a more diverse parliament, new parties and new faces who would be keener to share power in the absence of crushing majorities. And Spain got what it wanted. After December’s election there are now four middle-sized political forces, two of them new to parliament, together with a number of smaller groups. The perfect environment for practising the art of compromise, one might say.

Except no party, new or old, seems willing to compromise. The country has been without a government for two months and, short of an eleventh-hour agreement – which is still possible – it is set for a few more months of what many see as a state of paralysis.

But is it that bad? The Belgians famously remained in the same state of moderate anarchy for 541 days and apparently came to enjoy it – they even threw a party when they broke the previous world record. That record was said to have been held by Iraq.

Making it into the Guinness World Records is no substitute for a stable government, of course, but as with Belgium, the stalemate in Spain is not as problematic as it seems. The 2016 budget was approved before the election and the highly decentralised nature of the Spanish state ensures that even if there is no fully functional government in Madrid the country’s regional governments will carry on unimpeded.

From one point of view there’s even an upside. Brussels has let it be known that it disapproves of the current budget, demanding cut-backs and tax hikes. But that cannot legally be done until a new government is in place. Depending on the definition of action, paralysis may not be so bad.

But the question is why it has been so difficult to muster a majority. The arithmetic is tricky but does not tell the whole story. What we are seeing is not a difficulty in reaching agreements, but a resistance to negotiate them. It is not that there’s no common ground between the parties; rather they have established a series of mutual vetoes which pre-empt every possible coalition.

The conservative leader, Mariano Rajoy, won’t even shake the hand of his socialist counterpart, Pedro Sánchez. The centre-right Ciudadanos and the leftist Podemos have presented the socialists with a choice between talking to one or the other. The socialists, if they want to form a leftist coalition, would need the Catalan nationalists, and yet have informed them that they do not want their support. Moreover, they have warned them not to even abstain or skip the vote lest it be interpreted as acquiescence.

Many factors explain this difficult, hypersensitive political environment, but two of them are missing in the broader conversation. One nobody wants to mention, the other nobody seems to be aware of.

Despite being an apparently taboo subject, the territorial issue lies at the heart of the current predicament. Its most acute symptom is the process of independence in Catalonia – but it extends far beyond that. It is because of their differences on this matter that Ciudadanos, Podemos, the Socialists and the nationalist parties cancel each other out. So long as it remains unresolved – which looks like being some time yet – it will continue to weigh heavy on Spanish politics.

The other factor, which Spain seems oblivious to, concerns the nature of the country’s “new politics”. Regardless of how appealing the idea of a blank state may be, many aspects of the so-called “old politics” have the look of permanence. The conservative PP is behaving arrogantly, the socialists are marred in internal contradictions, Ciudadanos trades in ambiguity, Podemos seems obsessed with naked power … Perhaps it was naive to think it would be any different.

A fragmented parliament can lead to a willingness to compromise, but it can just as easily engender a zero-sum game; the long-established mechanics of party politics are not suspended once there are new faces.

So sit comfortably, because sorting out this conundrum is not going to be easy. It has become commonplace for political commentators in Spain to refer to the TV series Game of Thrones when describing the power play taking place in their parliament. It may not be quite that ruthless – but it may end up being almost as long-running.