With more than 95% of the votes counted, the PP has won the election with 136 seats. But the result hints at weeks – if not months – of negotiations as parties try to hammer out whether Spain’s next government will tack to the right or left.

 

From 5m ago

22.10 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/23/spain-election-2023-polls-results-latest-news

 

Summary

With more than 95% of the votes counted, the PP has won the election with 136 seats. But the result hints at weeks – if not months – of negotiations as parties try to hammer out whether Spain’s next government will tack to the right or left.

The Socialists did better than polls had predicted, winning 122 seats. The result is a slight gain over the 120 seats it won in the November 2019 election.

The new leftwing movement, Sumar, won 31 seats

The far-right party Vox has taken the biggest losses of the night, with its seat count dropping from 52 in the country’s parliament to 33.

While polls had suggested that Vox’s seat count would drop, they also suggested that this drop would be compensated by its role as a kingmaker after the election.

A PP-Vox coalition would have 169 – meaning it would need to secure a handful of votes from other parties in order to secure a majority in the 350-seat parliament. It is a tall order, given that most regional parties have expressed hesitation over striking deals that could ease Vox’s path to power.

The Socialists and Sumar would have 153 seats together, meaning they could potentially try to strike deals with smaller regional parties in order to govern. But doing so would require weeks – if not months – of fraught negotiations, meaning Spain risks heading into new elections.

Updated at 22.14 BST