MADRID — Mariano Rajoy, the leader of Spain’s conservative Popular Party, tried to form a ‘‘grand coalition’’ Monday after his party won the country’s unprecedented repeat election — but his offer was quickly rejected by both the center-left Socialists and the business-friendly Ciudadanos party.
The Popular Party won 137 seats in Sunday’s vote but again fell short of capturing the majority in the 350-seat Parliament that it had won in a 2011 election.
Rajoy’s party also won an election in December but no other major party was willing to help him form a government — a political scenario that reemerged Monday and could leave Spain with a caretaker government for many more months.
Speaking after a party leadership meeting, Rajoy said voters had backed his party’s strategy of seeking a coalition with the Socialists and Ciudadanos.
‘‘I continue to offer my hand to form a government that guarantees stability,’’ he said.
But Socialist party spokesman Antonio Hernando said his party would neither ‘‘support Rajoy’s investiture nor abstain.’’
Albert River, the leader of Ciudadanos, a new party that came in fourth Sunday with 32 seats, reacted similarly, although he suggested that he might support a Popular Party government with another leader.
Rajoy, 61, has refused to discuss any possibility of stepping aside.
Spanish politics have been in an ungovernable deadlock since December. Part of the problem is that Spain, unlike other European nations, has never had a coalition government. Instead, the Popular Party and the Socialists have alternated in power for decades. That means the political art of forging a coalition government deal is new to all.
‘‘With his big victory, Rajoy now certainly has a stronger hand than after the December election,’’ Antonio Barroso, a London-based analyst with the Teneo Intelligence political risk consulting group, said Monday. ‘‘However, it is unlikely that other parties will rapidly give him their support.’’
In third place with 71 seats was the United We Can group. But its main goal has always been to oust the Popular Party and install a leftist government, so it’s unlikely to lend Rajoy any support.
