Opposition party wins snap general election in Spain

Spain's opposition right-wing Popular Party (PP) won snap general election on July 23, with 100% of the votes counted, but was set to fall short of a parliamentary majority.

The PP and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez' Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) had 33.1% and 31.7% shares of the vote respectively, the results showed, per DW.

This would give the PP, under leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, 136 seats in the 350-seat lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies, and the Socialists 122 seats.

The PP now requires support from several junior parties to achieve a governing majority of 176 seats, so the result is likely to produce weeks of political jockeying. 

The far-right Vox, which offered to partner with the PP was projected to win 33 seats. But even with the 169 seats this would amount to, the PP would still be seven seats short.

But if that partnership is later confirmed, along with a third party, it would be the first time a far-right party had entered government in Spain since Francisco Franco's dictatorship ended in the 1970s.

The radical left-wing Sumar, which brought together 15 small leftist parties and backed the Socialists, won 31 seats, giving their alliance just 153 seats.

The remaining parties are mostly region-specific. The two Catalan pro-independence parties, who voted to support a Sanchez-lead government previously, saw their number of seats fall, but may still play the role of kingmaker if Sanchez tries to stay on as prime minister.