Spain's King Felipe VI calls new election amid political deadlock Tuesday May 03,2016

Spanish voters will return to the polls on June 26m2016, six months after a general election failed to produce a clear-cut result.

King Felipe VI signed a decree on Tuesday May 03,2016 to dissolve parliament, bringing to an end months of stalemate between the four main parties.

Spain has never had a repeat election since it returned to democracy in 1975

The parliament speaker expressed her hope that the parties had learned from their failure to produce a government.

"I hope we have all learned our lesson and that the next parliament reaches an agreement as soon as possible," Patxi Lopez told

The last election marked an end to the traditional dominance of Spanish politics by the centre-right Popular Party (PP) and Socialist PSOE which lost votes to the left-wing anti-austerity Podemos movement and centrist Ciudadanos (Citizens) party.

Although the PP won the vote, they lost their majority and leader Mariano Rajoy has been caretaker prime minister ever since