23:59

We are about to close the live blog. Here are the most important developments from Sunday’s general election in Spain.

Socialist PSOE wins general election

With more than 99% of votes counted, the socialist party, PSOE, has won Spain’s 2019 general election and looks set to enter negotiations with Podemos to form a leftwing coalition government with prime minister Pedro Sánchez as leader. PSOE won 123 of the 350 seats in parliament.

Spanish election results 2019. Spanish election results 2019.

Pedro Sánchez addresses supporters outside the PSOE headquarters in Madrid last night. Photograph: Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty Images

Far-right surges on terrible night for mainstream conservatives

Sunday’s vote was a humiliation for the People’s party (PP), the traditional conservative party of government in Spain, as the anti-feminist, anti-immigration Vox party won 24 seats in parliament, the most significant victory by a far-right party since the end of Franco’s dictatorship. PP’s leader, Pablo Casado, admitted the election results were “very bad” after the number of seats in parliament held by his party more than halved from 137 in 2016’s vote to 66.

Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, gives a thumbs-up during an election night rally in Madrid. Photograph: Oscar Del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images

Catalan independence could slip off political agenda

It is too early to assert with certainty, but Pedro Sanchez could be free to form a government without relying on the backing of the Catalan separatists who demand an independence vote as the price for their support. The issue collapsed his government at the start of this year and caused Sunday’s election, but a Catalan independence vote could slip off the political agenda if no party in the ruling coalition supports it.

Spanish general election 2019: full results Read more

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