Leader of the Popular Party (PP) and Spain's caretaker prime minister and party candidate, Mariano Rajoy arrives to vote in Spain's general election in Moncloa-Aravaca, Madrid, on June 26, 2016 | Cesar Manso/AFP via Getty Images Déjà vu as Spanish elections fail to break deadlock In a repeat of December’s inconclusive vote, the Popular Party comes first — but without a parliamentary majority.

MADRID — Spain’s second elections in six months failed to produce a clear winner once more on Sunday, with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservatives gaining seats in Congress but still far short of a governing majority, and their main Socialist rivals fending off a far-left challenge for second place.

The repeat elections strenghened Rajoy's position compared to December's inconclusive vote, but difficult coalition talks will be needed to break the impasse: Rajoy's Popular Party came in first but without a parliamentary majority, the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) second, far-left Unidos Podemos failing to overtake the PSOE and still third, and the centrist Ciudadanos way behind in fourth place.

The partial results gave the PP 137 seats in Congress, an improvement on its showing in December but far short of a majority in parliament of 176. The PSOE had 85 seats — a loss of five — and Unidos Podemos had 71, while Ciudadanos suffered the worst losses of the night, dropping eight seats to 32.

"We reclaim the right to rule," 61-year-old Rajoy told cheering PP supporters. The acting prime minister gave no indication how how he intended to try to form a governing coalition, other than to say that he would start talking to "everyone" on Monday.

To oust Rajoy, the leftists would need to team up with Ciudadanos — which is highly unlikely — and overcome a major difference between the PSOE and Podemos.

There was a sense of déjà vu in Spain, with only minor changes in the results despite six months of political stalemate that forced the country to hold the first repeat election in its democratic history.

Turnout was lower than in December at just under 70 percent, suggesting the Spanish electorate has grown disenchanted with what has recently proved a fruitless process.

Faith in the political class has also been undermined by recent corruption scandals in the PP and the PSOE, encouraging voters to shake up the two-party system, which has seen these two parties alternate in power for decades.

Rajoy's handful of extra seats indicate that Spanish voters clung to certainty, perhaps heeding his warning on Friday after Britain's vote to leave the EU that it was not the time to meddle with stability.

The conservative leader has overseen an economic recovery, which saw growth of 3.2 percent last year, the second-fastest in the EU. However, unemployment of over 20 percent is still one of the highest in the developed world and Spain posted the second-biggest budget deficit in the EU last year of 5.1 percent, which could prompt sanctions from Brussels.

Intransigence

To break the deadlock, Rajoy could team up with Ciudadanos and two small parties in the Basque country and Canary Islands for a combined 175 seats — one short of majority in Congress. The alternative would be for Rajoy and Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez to come to some sort of deal to keep the PP in power, or Sánchez could seek a deal with both Unidos Podemos and Ciudadanos, even though that failed to work last time round.

Podemos, which was founded in 2014 by a handful of university lecturers inspired by Latin America's new left and the indignados protest movement in Spain, had hoped to poach voters from the PSOE after softening its radical stance, though it still wants to boost spending by €60 billion in the next four years and defy the EU-mandated austerity measures.

"Tonight's election results are not satisfactory. We had other expectations," said Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias.

To oust Rajoy, the PSOE would need to engineer a coalition with Ciudadanos and Podemos which seem unlikely at this stage, not least because they would need to overcome differences like Iglesias' offer to back a Catalan referendum on secession from Spain. The Socialists, like the PP and Ciudadanos, are committed to Spanish unity and reject any such vote.

PSOE leader Sánchez recriminated Iglesias for his "intransigence" in turning down an offer after December's elections to form a Socialist-led coalition to oust Rajoy, adding: “The PSOE has reaffirmed its position as hegemonic party on the Left in Spain.”

Albert Rivera's Ciudadanos suffered the biggest setback, losing eight seats. That suggests Rajoy was successful in luring back those conservative voters who had fled to the upstart centrist party — and that Rivera's attacks on the PP for its corruption scandals, and on Podemos for its links to leftist parties in Greece and Venezuela, didn't convince Spanish voters.

Rivera blamed his young party's losses on low turnout and an electoral system under which a 1 percentage point drop in votes translated into eight less seats. But he added: "The center is here to stay."