Closing summary
We’re going to wrap this live blog up now.
My colleague Sam Jones has filed a comprehensive take on the election that was supposed to unlock Spain’s political impasse, but instead may well have made things worse.
You can read his full story here. He concludes Spain is “once again bound for months of negotiations and horsetrading as it tries to form a government at a time of unprecedented political fragmentation.”
- Spain’s politics remain in deadlock after the centre-left PSOE party of prime minister Petro Sánchez shed a handful of seats but still won the country’s fourth general election in as many years, but his left bloc fell well short of the 176 seats needed for a majority in parliament.
- Despite the far-right, anti-immigration Vox party more than doubling its previous score and the conservative People’s party also making sizeable gains, the right was also left without enough seats to form a government after the liberal Citizens party lost four-fifths of its deputies and was all but wiped out.
- The major national parties’ final scores, compared with their tallies in April’s elections, were as follows:
Left 157 seats: PSOE 120 (down 3), Podemos 35 (down 7), Mas Pais 2
Right 149 seats: PP: 87 (up 21), Vox: 52 (up 28), Citizens: 10 (down 47)
Pedro Sanchez tells PSOE supporters the party has won a clear victory and assures those urging him not to cooperate with the conservative People’s party that “this time, yes, we will have a progressive government”.
He called on all the country’s other parties to be “generous” in helping to break the gridlock, and promised the PSOE would be too. It might be easier said than done.
DIRECTO | Los militantes cambian el "con Rivera, no" por el "con Casado, no". Y Pedro Sánchez responde que toma nota antes de prometer que, "esta vez sí o sí, vamos a tener un Gobierno progresista" #eleccionesgenerales10N https://t.co/gTyL85ZJ5U pic.twitter.com/E4c1y5Qm9k
— EL PAÍS (@el_pais) November 10, 2019
Updated
The leading daily El Pais sums up the results of a vote that was meant to break the deadlock in which Spanish politics has found itself since the last one seven months ago:
A poll that was meant to unblock the political situation in Spain has served only to complicate it, with losses for the left, a recovery for the PP and a huge boost for the far-right
Pablo Casado, leader of the centre-right People’s party which made good much of the losses it suffered in April’s election, has also appeared before party supporters:
We have shown that we are strong, and that we will continue to serve the Spanish people. Sánchez has lost his gamble. We are going to see what propositions he puts forward, and then we will exercise our responsibility - this political gridlock in Spain can no longer continue.
Albert Rivera, whose liberal Citizens party has lost 47 of its 57 deputies, says Spain had voted to “validate the PSOE’s victory. Spain wanted more Sanchez, but also more Vox - and less of the centre.”
TV en DIRECTO | Rivera comparece tras la debacle de Ciudadanos: "Los españoles han querido que el PSOE revalide la victoria. Los españoles han querido más Sánchez, pero también más Vox y menos centro" #eleccionesgenerales10N https://t.co/NvfyRBfumO pic.twitter.com/TXcbWqY79Y
— EL PAÍS (@el_pais) November 10, 2019
Rivera added that his future was in the hands of the party’s members:
What we got today was an unmitigated bad result - with no excuses. Given these bad results I believe that as leader it is my duty to call an urgent extraordinary meeting of the party executive.
Updated
So what coalitions might be theoretically possible to form a majority government in Spain’s seemingly intractably hung parliament? El Pais columnist Jorge Galindo lists some of the options here - while noting that they may be mathematically feasible, but politically, probably not so much ...
Después del #10N, ¿qué sumas son posibles en el Congreso de los Diputados? Aquí van algunas aritméticamente viables, a cual más complicada de lograr políticamente. pic.twitter.com/XwfaxYaeYi
— Jorge Galindo (@JorgeGalindo) November 10, 2019
Centre left wins, far right surges - but Spain's politics remain deadlocked
With more than 99% of votes now counted, the centre-left PSOE party of prime minister Petro Sánchez remains Spain’s largest party after the country’s fourth general election in as many years - but his left bloc has fallen well short of the 176 seats needed for a majority in parliament.
Despite the far-right, anti-immigration Vox party more than doubling its previous score and the conservative People’s party making sizeable gains, the right, too, was left without enough seats to form a government after the liberal Citizens party was all but wiped out.
Having been ruled since April’s inconclusive poll by Sánchez’s caretaker administration, which failed to forge a coalition with either Citizens or the anti-austerity Podemos, the country now faces many more weeks - or months - of political deadlock and uncertainty.
The major national parties’ final scores, compared with their tallies in April’s elections, were as follows:
Left 157 seats
PSOE: 120 (down 3)
Podemos: 35 (down 7)
Mas Pais: 2
Right 149 seats
PP: 87 (up 21)
Vox: 52 (up 28)
Citizens: 10 (down 47)
Updated
The far-right Vox party’s leader, Santiago Abascal, is currently addressing crowds of supporters after its leap from 24 parliamentary seats to 52, making it the country’s third largest party.
“Let’s go get them!” the party’s supporters roar, as Abascal put its performance down to the fact it had “led a cultural and political change by opening up all the forbidden debates and told the left that the story isn’t over yet.”
Abascal added: “They don’t have any moral superiority, and we have the same right to defend our ideas without being stigmatised and insulted as we still are by the media.”
Updated
Not to be outdone, Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League party, has also congratulated Vox, adding:
I bet the headlines are already ready - “extreme right-wing victory, racists, sovereignists, fascists ...” Not at all racism and fascism, in Italy as in Spain we just want to live peacefully in our own home.
Grande avanzata degli amici di @vox_es, scommetto già pronti titoli di tg e giornali su "vittoria estrema destra, razzisti, sovranisti, fascisti...”.
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) November 10, 2019
Macché razzismo e fascismo, in Italia come in Spagna vogliamo solo vivere tranquilli in casa nostra.#portichiusi 🇮🇹🇪🇸 #10N pic.twitter.com/hYWL2ovHDp
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far right National Rally, has congratulated Vox and its leader Santiago Abascal for the party’s “spectacular advance”:
Le mouvement @vox_es réalise ce soir une progression fulgurante à l’occasion des élections législatives en #Espagne.
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) November 10, 2019
Bravo à son dirigeant @Santi_ABASCAL pour son impressionnant travail d'opposition, qui porte déjà ses fruits après seulement quelques années ! MLP pic.twitter.com/4zO2MzaV4Q
Since its return to democracy in 1975, Spain had been considered immune to the advance of the populist, anti-immigrant and far-right parties that have seen such electoral success in much of continental Europe.
Respected El Pais columnist Jorge Galindo says that era has now come to an end: the 10 November elections “confirm the end of the Spanish exception in Europe: the Vox vote is already similar to that of the far right in Austria or the Netherlands”, he says.
Hoy, #10N, se confirma el final de la excepción española en Europa: el voto de Vox ya es similar al de la extrema derecha en Austria o Países Bajos. pic.twitter.com/vOkXhJNsF6
— Jorge Galindo (@JorgeGalindo) November 10, 2019
More than half votes counted
With more than 50% of votes counted, it looks like a pretty good night for the centre-left PSOE; a very good one for the centre right PP; a spectacular one for the far-right Vox; a disappointing one for the anti-austerity Podemos and a truly dreadful one for the liberal Citizens.
But above all, nether left the left nor the right bloc are anywhere near an absolute majority in the 350-seat parliament. The Guardian is now running live result updates which you can follow here.
Updated
Here’s Spain and Latin America specialist Michael Reid of the Economist with his view of the results so far:
Spain: with 35% of the vote counted Socialists similar result to April, collapse of Cuidadanos (down 47 seats), rise of far-right Vox (up 23); Podemos down 8; gains for radical Catalan and Basque nationalists. Albert Rivera, Cs leader built a party and then destroyed it
— Michael Reid (@michaelreid52) November 10, 2019
Updated
Results are now starting to come in - and Spain counts votes fast ...
With nearly 23% of votes counted, the parties’ scores and seats in the 350-seat parliament look like this:
PSOE (centre left) 29.2% : 121 seats
PP (conservative) 20.4% : 81 seats
VOX (far right) 13.6% : 46 seats
Podemos (anti-austerity) 12.4% : 32 seats
Citizens (liberal) 35.6% : 10 seats
Mas Pais (breakaway left) 1.6% : three seats
Updated
With the far-right Vox party forecast by several late polls to become Spain’s third-largest party, potentially winning as many as 60 seats in the 350-seat parliament, Guardian Madrid correspondent Sam Jones send this take:
Although widely anticipated, Vox’s apparent vault into third place - with almost 60 seats now predicted - is dramatic. Two years ago, the far-right outfit was viewed as an atavistic irrelevance.
That changed, largely due to the Catalan independence crisis, in December last year when Vox won 12 seats in the Andalucían regional parliament.
It fared a little less well than predicted in April’s general election, winning 24 seats. But helped once again by renewed tensions in Catalonia, Vox now seems on course to more than double its parliamentary presence.
Its rise comes as the centre-right Citizens see their support collapse and the conservative People’s party experiences a bounce back. The question now is what effect Vox’s surge will have on the PP as negotiations begin to try to form a government.
Teneo analyst Antonio Barroso pointing out the obvious, assuming the pre-election polls now being released prove anything like correct.
With neither the right bloc nor the left approaching a majority in parliament, Spain is headed for more deadlock and more uncertainty:
In any case, government formation is going to take time (again), and Spain might go into the Xmas break without a government
— Antonio Barroso (@abarrous) November 10, 2019
Updated
Javier Casquiero, the political correspondent of the leading Spanish daily, El País, does the sums from public broadcaster RTVE’s poll:
In the worst case scenario, the right – the People’s party, Vox and Citizens – would win 157 seats of the 350 in parliament, and in the best case 166.
The left – the PSOE, Podemos and its breakaway party Más País – would have 147 seats in the worst case, and 156 in the best.
At that point, speculation would begin of possible alliances with the regional and separatist Basque Nationalist party, Canaries Coalition and the Catalan nationalists.
Updated
A second poll, carried out on Saturday and Sunday for the online news site EL ESPAÑOL, is predicting roughly similar results, with the PSOE set to remain the largest party in parliament with between 112 and 118 deputies – as many as 11 down on its score in April’s inconclusive elections.
But the centre-left party’s chances of forming a government “would depend on an arithmetic even more devilish than that of April 28, since the leftwing parties are even further from an absolute majority,” the website said. “Spain remains lost in a maze, with this election night not producing any solution to the institutional gridlock.”
Updated
The RTVE poll suggests the left (the PSOE party and anti-austerity Podemos) are on set to lose seats compared to April’s vote, with the conservative People’s party and far-right Vox making big gains.
The big loser of the night looks set to be the liberal Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, which seems to be paying the electoral price for refusing to even contemplate entering a coalition with the PSOE seven months ago.
Updated
New pre-election poll puts right ahead, but short of majority
Polls are now closed.
This isn’t an exit poll, but a survey conducted in the days immediately before the election which could not be published during the run-up to the vote.
If it’s borne out it looks like being an uncomfortable night for the centre-left prime minister Pedro Sanchez – it gives the rightwing parties the most votes, although well short of a majority.
El #SondeoRTVE apunta a más bloqueo: ningún bloque sumaría mayoría absoluta https://t.co/BqjzGByYBE #EspecialEleccionesRTVE pic.twitter.com/Ds8YP7khaI
— RTVE (@rtve) November 10, 2019
The poll, for Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, was of 13,000 people, conducted between 25 October and 10 November.
Updated
Perhaps as a consequence of voter apathy, turnout at 6pm was 56.8%, nearly four points down on the same figure in the April 28 poll - but this is pretty much in line with recent November elections, so may not be significant.
The Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, Sam Jones, has an evocative scene-setter for today’s elections from Guadalajara, about 60km north-east of Madrid, where he found voters feeling “fed up and defrauded” after four elections in as many years:
“None of the politicians here seems to get it. We can’t go on like this. We can’t go on with more and more problems and more and more unemployment. People keep saying things are getting better but they’re not.”
You can read Sam’s full report here.
One thing to watch out for this evening will be the performance of the anti-immigrant, far-right Vox party.
After entering the national parliament for the first time in April with 24 seats, Vox, which favours a radical recentralisation of Spain, has seen its popularity soar, largely on the re-eruption of the Catalan crisis, and could well double its previous score.
The parliamentary spokeswoman for the centre-left PSOE party, Adriana Lastra, made clear that this was an election in which everyone’s vote would count: “We have to stop them,” she tweeted, none too subtly. “Go and vote.”
— Adriana Lastra (@Adrilastra) November 9, 2019
Good evening and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Spanish general election.
Polls close soon in Spain’s fourth general elections in less than four years, with the centre-left PSOE of prime minister Pedro Sánchez on course to remain the largest party.
But after an inconclusive result in April and unsuccessful coalition talks with the anti-austerity Podemos, which now seems to be shedding support, Sánchez again looks unlikely to win enough seats to be able to form a left-leaning government.
The right, too, seems set to fall short of a majority, with pre-election polling suggesting the conservative People’s party (PP) will do well and the far-right Vox could surge to become the country’s third-largest party, but support for the liberal Cuidadanos is in freefall.
Is Europe’s fifth-largest economy heading for more months of deadlock and uncertainty? Stay with us for all the news, reaction and comment as latest pre-election polls come in and we await final results due around 10pm CET.
