Socialist party PSOE wins Spain election

Spain's governing Socialists won the country's national election but will need the backing of smaller parties to stay in power. The Socialists led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez won 29% of the vote, capturing 123 seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies.

Madrid:Socialist supporters celebrated their party's win in the Spanish elections on Sunday night.

Spain's governing centre-left Socialists won the country's election but must seek backing from smaller parties to maintain power, while a far-right party rode an unprecedented surge of support to enter the lower house of parliament for the first time in four decades.

The Socialists led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez won 29% of the vote, capturing 123 seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies. The new far-right Vox party made its national breakthrough by capturing 10% of the vote, which would give it 24 seats.

Sánchez announced that he would soon open talks with other political parties.

He hinted at a preference for a left-wing governing alliance but also sent a warning to Catalan separatists whose support he may need that any post-electoral pact must respect the country's 1978 constitution, which bans regions from seceding.

Vox's success came at the expense of the once-dominant conservative Popular Party, which fell to 66 seats, losing more than half of its representation since the last election in 2016. The conservatives also lost votes to the centre-right Citizens party, which will increase its number of seats from 32 to 57.

To stay in office, the Socialists and Sánchez must form a governing alliance with smaller parties, including the far-left United We Can led by Pablo Iglesias.

But Sánchez will still need 11 more seats to get the 176-seat majority he needs in the lower house of parliament, meaning he may be forced to make pacts with Catalan and other separatist parties - moves that would anger many Spaniards on the left and the right.