THE only visible progress towards the formation of a new government yesterday was the expected announcement from a regional party in the Canaries that it will probably vote for Mr Jose Maria Aznar's Partido Popular (PP).
The centre right PP won 156 seats in last Sunday's general elections, 15 more than the Socialist Party (PSOE). But Mr Aznar must get another 20 votes to form a stable government, and the Coalicion Canaria can offer only four.
The only party which can really help him is Mr Jordi Pujol's Catalan nationalist grouping, with which he has had bitter differences. Yesterday, callers jammed the switchboard at Mr Pujol's head office demanding that he reject Mr Aznar's advances.
The Catalan negotiator, Mr Joaquin Molins, who flew to Madrid last night to meet his PP opposite number, Mr Rodrigo Rato, would say only that he was "going to listen and take notes."
Mr Aznar fails to win Catalan support, new elections will have to be called, a prospect which appeals to no one but is know a real possibility.
Ironically, one party which could also be a king maker, in terms of pure arithmetic, has ruled itself out of the game in terms of real politics.
Izquierda Unida (IU) is a communist led coalition including greens and independent socialists. The PSOE presided over 23 per cent unemployment, and IU should have been able to make major inroads in the PSOE heart lands. Instead, the coalition was only able to make what its leader Mr Julio Anguita, described yesterday as "a timid and unsatisfactory advance", adding three seats to the 18 it already held.
Mr Anguita, who is also leader of the Communist Party (PCE), an old fashioned rabble rousing orator, often caricatured as a kin of mad Islamic prophet. His speeches have been faced with stinging rhetoric against the PSOE and its leader, Mr Felipe Gonzalez. There are times when he has almost sounded like an ally of the PP.
There are those in IU who believe that the way forward for the Spanish left is through co operation rather than confrontation, but they have been consistently marginalised by the skilful bureaucrats of the PCE. Among them is Mr Diego Lopez Garrido, regarded as one of the best deputies in the last parliament, but effectively squeezed out of the lists by the PCE this time around.
There was some expectation that Mr Anguita might admit his errors at yesterday's press conference, but he doggedly stuck to his guns, blaming outside factors for the electoral failure.
The unity of the Spanish left, which could seriously threaten Mr Aznar's fragile dominance of Spanish politics, is evidently still not on the agenda.