By Belén Carreño and Paul Day
MADRID, June 24 (Reuters) - The economic spokesman for the centre-right Ciudadanos quit the party on Monday over its regional deals with the far right, underscoring tensions across Spanish politics splintered by national and local elections in April and May.
For decades, Spain's Socialists and the conservative People's Party (PP) were able to govern alternately with stable national majorities. But years of recession and austerity and the success of anti-establishment parties elsewhere led to the rise of Ciudadanos and Vox on the right, as well as the far-left Podemos, with all the complications that entails.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist, won April's parliamentary vote but fell short of a majority, meaning he needs the support of several smaller parties to form another government.
Ciudadanos, which elected its first lawmakers in 2015 and is now Spain's third largest party, opposes any deal with the Socialists and instead opted for local and regional pacts with the People's Party (PP) and Vox.
"How can we create a liberal project in Spain if we are unable to confront the extreme right that is against everything we believe?" Toni Roldan, Ciudadanos' economic spokesman in parliament, said in explaining why he had quit the party.
"I'm not leaving because I have changed. I'm leaving because Ciudadanos has changed."
On paper, the Socialists and Ciudadanos would have enough seats to rule the country together, the only scenario with which only two parties would add up.
But Sanchez looks set to rely instead on far-left Unidas Podemos and small regional parties for the next government, and hopes to be sworn in by parliament in July after concluding coalition talks.
Ciudadanos, headed by Albert Rivera, has often placed itself in the same centrist, liberal camp as French President Emmanuel Macron. But its deals with the PP and Vox in regional parliaments like Murcia and Madrid have upset some party members and drawn criticism from Paris.
Vox, which has spoken out against LGBT rights and wants to scrap legislation protecting women from domestic violence, has became the first far-right party with significant representation in the national parliament since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
Acting Justice Minister Dolores Delgado on Monday called for some response from Ciudadanos and the PP after a Vox regional spokesman called her a "whore" on Facebook over the weekend.
"I hope their associates, the PP and Ciudadanos, see that this red line by Vox is unacceptable," she told Onda Cero radio. (Writing by Paul Day Editing by Ingrid Melander and Mark Heinrich)
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