Spain’s young anti-austerity party Podemos has agreed an alliance with a rival party before the country enters a fresh general election on 26 June.
Podemos will ally with the smaller far-left Izquierda Unida (United Left) to run together in the election to enhances the chances of overtaking the Socialists who are the main opposition.
The agreement to stand together must receive final approval from party members.
"We have agreed on what is essential: we will run together in the elections to win them, and I suspect our members and those of IU will react to this historic opportunity with enthusiasm," Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said on Tuesday.
Podemos was founded in 2014 and has often been compared to Greece’s ruling Syriza party. Izquierda Unida is a communist-green party which won 900,000 votes in the first election in December.
In the first national election it ever faced, Podemos captured the third largest number of parliamentary seats with more than five million votes after the governing Popular Party and the Socialists. But no party had sufficient votes to govern alone.
After that, however, agreement on a ruling coalition was never reached and the country was plunged into a new election round. King Felipe had to call fresh elections, Spain's first repeat poll since the country returned to democracy after dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975.
Most opinion polls indicated that the results are likely to mirror those of the first election in December. But analysts speculate that Podemos might carry the blame for not agreeing a coalition and consequently could lose support.
