Spain's conservatives win tight election but no clear majority

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If you are just tuning in, here is the latest from a night of high drama in Spain.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) has won the most seats (136), but have failed to gain an outright majority in parliament.

The Socialist Party came second with 122 seats, faring better than most observers had expected, while the left-wing Sumar won 31 seats.

This is according to 99.7% of the votes that have been counted so far.

The results look set to lead to a hung parliament and a coalition would be needed to reach an absolute majority.

It was anticipated that the PP and the far-right Vox party would form a coalition.

But Sunday's results would no longer lead to a clear majority as the two parties have won a total of 169 seats - seven short of the 176 required to win an absolute majority.

Left-wing parties may now try to come together to see if they've got the numbers to govern.

This has been a very unusual general election for Spain, in the middle of summer when temperatures hit record highs and many Spaniards are enjoying their summer holidays.

Here's a look at how the day unfolded.

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Right-wing parties have also been celebrating the elections results.

The leader of the centre-right Popular Party (PP) Alberto Núñez Feijóo has told the crowd he is very proud of seeing so many people "celebrating" what he said was the PP's victory.

He stressed that his party has won most seats in the snap election and said the Spanish people have spoken and need to be listened to.

Feijóo also thanked voters who headed to the polls despite "unbearable temperatures".

Leader of far-right Vox party Santiago Abascal, meanwhile, hit out at Pedro Sánchez, saying the Socialist prime minister could block the formation of a right-wing government "despite losing election".

The lack of a clear majority for any of the parties is making for a confusing picture this evening as leaders on all sides celebrate Sunday's election results.

Despite his party failing to achieve as many seats as the PP opposition party, an elated Socialist party leader Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: "Good evening Spain, thank you from the bottom of my heart."

As he took to the stage at a rally, those in the crowd shouted "presidente". He has thanked voters, saying Spain showed it was a strong democracy.

"PP and Vox have been defeated," he claimed.

Elsewhere, Yolanda Díaz, leader of left-wing party Sumar, told those at the party's HQ that "democracy won".

She said Spaniards were worried about the country's future but will go to bed "más tranquilla".

As counting continues, we've got some new figures for you.

The Popular Party (PP) has so far won 113 seats in the upper house while the Socialist party has won 79.

As we've been reporting, in this year's elections Spaniards were also casting votes for 208 of 265 senators in the upper house.

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Anticipation is mounting as the final results of Spain's snap election are expected to be announced soon.

As we've just reported, people have gathered for a party outside the headquarters of Popular Party's leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

Meanwhile, Yolanda Díaz's, leader of Sumar, has arrived to the party's HQ, where she was met by people chanting "presidenta, presidenta”, El Pais' Manuel Viejo reported.

The party has started here.

There is a DJ and booming dance music as people wave flags around as they wait for the final votes to be counted.

A PP victory without a clear majority means they cannot govern just yet, though.

But it feels right now as though conservative voters just want to put the stress of the last few hours behind them and dance.

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“This is a quite a party, isn’t it?,” says the DJ. And the crowd goes wild. What was a quiet street has turned into a late-night party, complete with booming disco music.

The fact that the PP has won enough votes but will not actually have a governing majority seems all but forgotten.

The PP leader has not yet come out to speak to his supporters, but surely he will soon - whether the mood will change then remains to be seen.

When the polls closed this evening Alberto Núñez Feijóo's conservative Popular Party looked on course for a big win.

It was always clear they'd struggle to reach 176 seats to secure an absolute majority in parliament, unless they reached a deal with the far-right Vox party.

But with more than 95% of the results counted, they're well short of that, even with the far right. So far they've only got to 169 seats.

The Socialist vote has held up, but they're well behind their rivals, with 153 seats if you take in the seats won by left-wing alliance Sumar.

The conservatives will be celebrating tonight - because they've won. But there's no clear way forward towards a majority at the moment.

Political analyst Iago Moreno tells me that, as of right now, "the right wing has no chances to govern. [Vox and PP] do not have enough seats by themselves and they lack loyal of allies".

But he says the other left wing parties combined also do not have enough seats to govern.

"They need the abstention of the Catalonian right-wing party, Junts. And the possibility of Junts voting in favour of Pedro Sánchez is very remote.”

“At the moment, we could be facing a Christmas election," he says.

It's worth noting that there are still votes left to be counted and things can change quickly.

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91.67% of the vote has been counted, and the Popular Party has won 136 seats.

The Socialist Party is behind with 122 seats, right-wing party Vox is still in third place with 33 followed by left-wing party Sumar with 31.

As of right now, the PP has not secured an absolute majority of 176 seats, and may now have to form a coalition with Vox.

But leader Feijóo is less than enthusiastic at the prospect of governing with the far right.

In their TV debate, Feijóo said Vox's leader Abascal would not be a member of a prospective PP government "if I don't need the votes".

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The mood has changed.

PP supporters are now chanting almost non-stop and a big cheer erupted when a giant screen started broadcasting the count.

Tellingly, they only turned it on in the last few minutes when the PP started to look more solid.

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In the town of Castellar del Vallès, about 40 minutes north of Barcelona, voters expressed mixed views earlier.

Damaris said she thinks a coalition between the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party could be good because “it can’t be any worse than what we have now”.

Francisco, a volunteer for the PP party in Castellar, also wants change, saying Spain has had "too many years with Sanchismo".

But others such as nurse Cristina are worried about a potential coalition between Vox and PP.

“If they win, we would lose all the little things we achieved over the last few years in terms of women’s and LGBT rights and immigration. We’d be going backwards,” she said.

Pensioner Josep Maria says such a coalition will “absolutely be worse for Catalonia” in terms of protecting the Catalan language in schools and Madrid's approach to the independence movement.

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With 85% of the votes counted, the conservative Popular Party has pulled ahead with 135 seats.

The Socialist party has won about 123 seats, while far-right party Vox is in third place with 33 seats.

Sumar - the left-wing party - is in fourth place with 31 seats.

For the PP to reach a 175 majority, it looks likely they will have to form an alliance with Vox. But Vox has not performed as well in today's election as it did in 2019.

So far, it has won 19 fewer seats than it did last election. This of course could change with the remaining 15% of votes to be counted.

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We've told you earlier of reports that journalists from El País newspaper and Cadena SER radio were reportedly not granted access to the Vox party's HQ in Madrid.

El País is now reporting that its correspondent has been allowed in.

In a tweet, the newspaper's journalist Miguel Gonzalez, says Vox let him in after the Central Electoral Board "threatened" the party "with administrative and criminal sanctions if it did not do so".

El País previously reported that Vox had said it had reached its full capacity.

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We have been speaking to a couple of PP voters outside the party's HQ who are clearly a bit nervous about how the results have been panning out.

"This is not what we were expecting," says Adrian Pardo. "So far, the results are lower [than we hoped] but there are still many votes to count and I think that we will get to the point that the opinion polls predicted."

Patricia Juarez told us: "We are very even. I was expecting that after the May regional elections we would've been ahead of the Socialists and I hope that the results change because we are tired of [the government] we have right now."

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The leader of the centre-right Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has arrived at party headquarters, just as the PP begins to edge ahead of their Socialist rivals.

For the first time here the crowd of a few hundred supporters have become animated. They shouted out his name, as well as that of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader in Madrid.

For now the race is very tight but with almost two-thirds of votes counted, the PP is three seats ahead.

More than 56% of votes have been counted and for the moment it's a tight race between conservatives and Socialists. But for the first time the centre-right Popular Party (PP) - also known as the People's Party - has taken the lead, even if it's by just one seat with 131 seats in the 350-seat parliament.

The results are skewed for the moment as they're based mainly on smaller towns, and the PP is expected to pull away from the Socialists in the next hour.

Far-right Vox is on 31 seats and left-alliance Sumar is on 30.

We are likely to have a result by the end of the evening.

The street opposite Popular Party HQ in Madrid is starting to fill up with activists and supporters, many clad in Spanish flags - but the atmosphere among the conservatives is not quite jubilant yet.

In fact, it's pretty subdued.

Votes are being counted at breakneck speed - and the PP and Socialists are very close for now. Nobody is likely to be cracking the champagne open yet.

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