A far-right party on Sunday won seats in a Spanish regional parliament for the first time since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, results in Andalusia's election showed.

With 93 percent of the votes counted, the small Vox party took 12 seats, handing a majority to right-wing parties in the southern Spanish region governed by the Socialists for the last 36 years.

The result means that Vox, which opposes illegal immigration and Catalan independence, has exceeded even the most optimistic poll predictions which had forecast a possible five seat win.

The Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) scored the worst result in its history winning 33 seats so far.

Its potential ally on the left Adelante Andalusia (Forward Andalusia) picked up only 17 seats, depriving the left of a majority, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 26 seats and the Ciudadanos liberals took 21 seats.

The poll had been seen as the first of a series of tests for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

It was Sanchez's first electoral test since taking office in June after winning a surprise vote of no-confidence in parliament against the previous PP government of Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal.

His Socialists had ruled Andalusia since 1982.

The vote, however, is a mere foretaste of the coming 'super election year': 2019 will see municipal, regional and European elections and perhaps even an early general election to coincide with the other May polls.

All eyes will now be on Vox which can try to use Andalusia as a springboard in next year's elections.

If it did win a seat in the next general election, it would be the first time a far-right party had had a presence in Spain's lower house of parliament since 1982.

In all, 6.5 million were eligible to vote in the ballot in Andalusia, the country's most populous region and among its poorest.

The PSOE's Susana Diaz -- who last year unsuccessfully challenged Sanchez for the party leadership -- had been seeking to retain the regional presidency while also giving Sanchez and the national party a fillip.

But Vox sought to throw a spoke in their wheels by adding its voice to traditional conservative forces led by the PP and market-friendly Ciudadanos, which has in recent years challenged the PP for the mantle of Spain's dominant liberal force.

"These elections are key as a first step in the removal of Pedro Sanchez" and the PSOE from the government, PP leader Pablo Casado told Radio COPE on Friday.

Casado said a defeat in its traditional southern fiefdom would render the PSOE's attempt to retain power nationally "unsustainable." The Socialists are already walking a tightrope given they hold just 84 seats in the 350-seat national assembly.

Both the PP and Ciudadanos had said during the campaign that if rightwing forces together won a majority of seats they would not rule out accepting support in the regional chamber from Vox.

Vox's campaigning had mainly been against illegal immigration and any decentralisation of powers from Madrid.

"Vox is going to back whichever option entails throwing out Susana Diaz and the Socialist Party" from the regional administration, party deputy-leader Javier Ortega Smith said Saturday.

Diaz meanwhile called for "stability" as she ended her campaign, warning voters against forces of the right and far-right that "want to take us backwards".

Turnout by 1700 GMT was 46.4 percent, the regional government said -- five points down on the last election in 2015. </s> A far-right party has won seats in a Spanish regional parliament for the first time since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

With 99% of the votes counted in Andalucía, the small Vox party took 12 seats in the 109-member regional parliament.

The Socialists won the election, but saw their support plummet to just 33 seats, compared to 47 in 2015 – far from the majority of 55 seats needed to govern.

The result means that Vox, which opposes illegal immigration and Catalan independence, has exceeded even the most optimistic poll predictions which had forecast a possible five seat win. The party’s platform includes restricting abortion and rolling back domestic violence laws.

Vox had not previously held any seats in any legislative body in Spain since its founding four years ago, and now it has the key to forming a government in the nation’s most populated region.

“Now is the moment to say loud and clear who we are and that we have come to stay,” Vox candidate Francisco Serrano told a crowd of supporters who chanted: “Spain! Spain! Spain!”

Andalucía has been a Socialist bastion for 36 years, but the party could lose control of the government if parties on the right join forces to oust regional leader Susana Diaz, though that would require that they join forces with Vox.

“Despite winning the election it is a sad night for the Socialist Party,” Diaz said.

“There has been a real loss of ground for the Left. But the worst thing is that the extreme right, a phenomenon that has appeared in the rest of Europe, has arrived here.”

Diaz said she would call on other parties to “build a firewall against the extreme right in Spain.”

“Each party must decide if they are against the extreme right or if they will rely on their support to enter into government,” she said.

The Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) scored the worst result in its history winning 33 seats so far.

Its potential ally on the left Adelante Andalusia (Forward Andalusia) picked up only 17 seats, depriving the left of a majority, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 26 seats and the Ciudadanos liberals took 21 seats.

The poll had been seen as the first of a series of tests for Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez.

It was Sanchez’s first electoral test since taking office in June after winning a surprise vote of no-confidence in parliament against the previous PP government of Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal.

His Socialists had ruled Andalusia since 1982.

The vote is a mere foretaste of the coming “super election year”: 2019 will see municipal, regional and European elections and perhaps even an early general election to coincide with the other May polls.

All eyes will now be on Vox, which could try to use Andalusia as a springboard in next year’s elections.

Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report </s> In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018 photo, Spain's far-right Vox Party President Santiago Abascal, centre, with the general secretary, Javier Ortega, left, and regional candidate Francisco Serrano take part in a rally during regional elections in Andalusia, in Seville, Spain. The Socialists won just 33 seats in the Andalusia legislature, compared to 47 in 2015. The party could lose control of Spain's most populated region for the first time in 36 years if parties on the right can agree to form a government. The anti-immigrant, extreme right Vox party won 12 seats - its first in any Spanish legislative body. (AP Photo/Gogo Lobato) (AP) </s> MADRID — Spain’s governing Socialist party suffered an unexpected election setback on Sunday as right-wing parties won enough votes to oust the Socialists from power in the nation’s largest region for the first time since the country returned to democracy.

The result in Andalusia was a blow to Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist prime minister, who has been in office since June and could now be forced into a snap general election next year.

The Socialists won just 33 of the 109 seats in the regional parliament, according to provisional results released late Sunday, with 94 percent of the votes counted. It was the party’s worst result in Andalusia since 1982, when the region held its first election after Spain adopted a new Constitution.

The biggest change for Spain’s political landscape on Sunday was the emergence of Vox, a far-right party that had never previously made any significant election inroads. The party won 12 seats, according to the provisional results. </s> The big news on Sunday was that the Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Pedro Sánchez, won the highest number of seats at the Spanish general election. But the outcome of the vote also had an impact on other issues. Here is a roundup of other important news concerning the results that you might have missed.

High-profile losses

The outcome of Sunday’s vote has meant that some well-known figures are losing their congressional seats, particularly within the Popular Party (PP), which lost 71 seats on Sunday – a historically poor result for the conservative group. These include Mari Mar Blanco, sister of Miguel Ángel Blanco, a PP councilor who was kidnapped and executed by the Basque terrorist group ETA in July 1997. Blanco, who now heads the Terrorism Victims Foundation, had been a PP deputy since 2016.

Podemos candidate Rita Bosaho, Spain’s first black member of Congress, lost her seat on Sunday. Pepe Olivares

Also out is Rita Bosaho, a Podemos deputy who gained media attention in December 2015 when she became the first black person to sit inside Spanish Congress. Bosaho was running as number three for Alicante province, where Podemos only earned two seats.

No bullfighters in Congress

None of the bullfighters who were running with the PP and Vox have made it into Congress. The far-right Vox, whose defense of hunting and bullfighting has been one of its key policies, had a matador named Serafín Marín on its Barcelona list. Instead, Vox’s only seat representing Barcelona province will go to an atypical party member: Ignacio Garriga,whose father is Catalan and mother is from Equatorial Guinea.

The PP had also enlisted toreros: Salvador Vega for Málaga and Miguel Abellán for Madrid. Neither one has made it into the lower house.

Valencia election

Besides voting in the general election, residents of the Valencia region also cast their ballots for their regional representatives on Sunday. The Valencia branch of the Socialist Party, the PSPV-PSOE, received the highest number of votes, representing its first victory in 28 years in a region that had been long run by the PP. In 2015, the PP won the most seats but an alliance between the Socialists, Podemos and the regional Compromís ushered in a leftist executive. Regional premier Ximo Puig has opened talks in a bid to renew the alliance.

PSOE premier Ximo Puig celebrates after win at regional elections in Valencia. ©GTRES

Historic win in the Senate

The Socialist Party won an absolute majority in the Senate, breaking 25 years of PP control. The PSOE now holds 121 seats in the upper house, a significant rise from the 43 the party took at the 2016 polls. In addition to the senators elected by popular vote, the PSOE has 18 others who were appointed by the regional legislatures. This gives Sánchez’s party a total of 139 seats in the 266-seat Senate, where the absolute majority is 134. Not since 1993 has the PSOE been the most-voted party in the Senate.

As in Congress, the PP suffered a crushing defeat in the Senate vote, losing 74 seats to be left with just 56 seats. The remaining seats were won by the Catalan Republican Left-Sovereigntists (ERC-Sobiranistes) (11 seats), the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) (9), Ciudadanos (Citizens, 4), Navarra Suma (3), Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) (2), Gomera Socialist Group (ASG) (1) and EH Bildu (1) from the Basque Country.

Animal-rights group misses out on a seat

The Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) once again missed out on a seat in Congress. Although the group won 1.25% of the vote, the equivalent of more than 300,000 ballots, the party did not win a seat in Congress because support was spread out across the country. Spain uses the D’Hondt method of proportional representation, according to which some votes carry more weight depending on where they are cast.

PACMA office on election night. KIKE PARA EL PAÍS

“How can you justify the fact that the 50,000 people who voted for the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) have representation and the 300,000 who voted for PCMA are left out again?” asked PACMA candidate Laura Duarte.

Despite the disappointing result, the party is optimistic about their chances at the upcoming European elections.

English version by Susana Urra. </s> The Socialist Party (PSOE) of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has won the highest number of seats but fallen short of an absolute majority at the snap general election that was held in Spain on Sunday. With around 95% of the vote counted, the PSOE has won 123 seats while Unidas Podemos – a coalition of United Left and anti-austerity group Podemos – picked up 42. Together, these two parties account for 165 seats, which is below the 176 needed for an absolute majority, meaning Sánchez will need the support of regional parties if he is to govern.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday, losing around 70 seats in Congress to be left with just 66. The center-right party Ciudadanos (Citizens) performed better, winning 57 deputies in Congress. Meanwhile the far-right party Vox took 24 seats in its debut national election. Since Blas Piñar, a far-right politician linked to former dictator Francisco Franco, lost his seat in Congress in 1982, no political party with a similar ideology has set foot in any of the country’s parliaments.

High turnout

Spaniards headed to the polls on Sunday, April 28, for the third time in less than four years to cast their vote in an election dominated by uncertainty. Polls ahead of the election predicted the Socialist Party (PSOE) would win the highest number of seats in Congress but there were doubts as to whether they would have enough seats to form government. A number of factors were tipped to shift the political landscape in Spain, most importantly the rise of the far-right party Vox, which made shock gains at the regional elections in Andalusia in December.

In the face of this fractured outlook, Spaniards poured into polling stations across the country, with voter turnout at around 75% – 8.5 percentage points more than the 2016 polls. The turnout was particularly high in Catalonia, where the independence drive has deeply divided the region. The rise was most notable in inland areas in Catalonia that are the strongest supporters of independence.

Vox had targeted the breakaway region during its election campaign, promising to get rid of Spain’s current system of devolved regional powers.

In two televised debates ahead of the election, PP leader Pablo Casado and Ciudadanos chief Albert Rivera also promised to take a hardline approach on the separatist movement. In early April, sources close to Casado said he would apply Article 155 of the Constitution, a measure that gives the central government emergency powers to suspend Catalonia’s autonomous powers, if he won the election and achieved an absolute majority in the Senate.

Por una España de libres e iguales en donde recuperemos la convivencia y no tengamos que ver nunca más cómo se le niega hasta el saludo a la líder de la oposición @InesArrimadas.



🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/TOqP3zp7am — Toni Cantó (@Tonicanto1) April 28, 2019 “For a free and equal Spain where we recover social harmony and never have to see again how even the leader of the opposition is denied a handshake.”

The tense situation over the issue of Catalan independence led to two incidents at polling stations in the region. In the first, an electoral official refused to shake the hand of Inés Arrimadas, a candidate in Barcelona for center-right party Ciudadanos.

Por cosas como esta, cada minuto que pasa necesitamos con más urgencia #MásPPMásEspaña🇪🇸. Esto es intolerable. No podrán con nosotros.

Todo nuestro apoyo a @cayetanaAT Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo. pic.twitter.com/9uskyMUP8e — Partido Popular 🇪🇸 (@populares) April 28, 2019 “Due to things like this, with each minute that passes, we more urgently need #MorePPMoreSpain. This is intolerable. They will not defeat us. All our support for Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo”

And in the second, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, a candidate for the PP in Barcelona, was blocked by several people from entering a polling station in Montcada i Reixac, and confronted as she left.

Aside from these incidents, voting went ahead largely without issues. According to the National Police, 92,000 officers were on duty on Sunday to ensure the smooth running of the polls.

Mobilization of the left

In the lead up to the election, Prime Minister Sánchez warned voters that there was “a real risk that the right could join with the far right” in a bid to reduce voter apathy, which was one of the factors behind the Socialists’ defeat at the Andalusian regional election.

Susana Díaz, the former regional premier of Andalusia who was ousted from power in December thanks to an agreement between the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, warned on election day that “when the left doesn’t mobilize, the right wins.”

Images of Vox’s large-scale campaign rallies fed progressive fears about the possibility of seeing the far right in government again in a country where this ideology was in power via a dictatorship until 1976, and where many people thought it had since died out.

English version by Melissa Kitson. </s> A far-right party won seats in a Spanish regional parliament for the first time since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, results in Andalusia's election showed.

With more than 99 percent of the votes counted late Sunday, the small Vox party took 12 seats, handing a majority to right-wing parties in the southern Spanish region governed by the Socialists for more than three decades.

The result means that Vox, which opposes illegal immigration and Catalan independence, has exceeded even the most optimistic poll predictions which had forecast a possible five seat win.

"The Andalusians have made history... and got rid of 36 years of socialist rule," said Vox leader Santiago Abascal.

The Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) scored the worst result in its history winning 33 seats.

Its potential ally on the left Adelante Andalusia (Forward Andalusia) picked up only 17 seats, depriving the left of a majority, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) won 26 seats and the Ciudadanos liberals took 21 seats.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen sent "warm congratulations" in a tweet to her "Vox friends".

The poll had been seen as the first of a series of tests for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

It was Sanchez's first electoral test since taking office in June after winning a surprise vote of no-confidence in parliament against the previous PP government of Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal.

His Socialists had ruled Andalusia since 1982.

The vote, however, is a mere foretaste of the coming 'super election year': 2019 will see municipal, regional and European elections and perhaps even an early general election to coincide with the other May polls.

All eyes will now be on Vox which can try to use Andalusia as a springboard in next year's elections.

If it did win a seat in the next general election, it would be the first time a far-right party had had a presence in Spain's lower house of parliament since 1982.

In all, 6.5 million were eligible to vote in the ballot in Andalusia, the country's most populous region and among its poorest.

The PSOE's Susana Diaz -- who last year unsuccessfully challenged Sanchez for the party leadership -- had been seeking to retain the regional presidency while also giving Sanchez and the national party a fillip.

But Vox sought to throw a spoke in their wheels by adding its voice to traditional conservative forces led by the PP and market-friendly Ciudadanos, which has in recent years challenged the PP for the mantle of Spain's dominant liberal force.

"These elections are key as a first step in the removal of Pedro Sanchez" and the PSOE from the government, PP leader Pablo Casado told Radio COPE on Friday.

Casado said a defeat in its traditional southern fiefdom would render the PSOE's attempt to retain power nationally "unsustainable." The Socialists are already walking a tightrope given they hold just 84 seats in the 350-seat national assembly.

Both the PP and Ciudadanos had said during the campaign that if rightwing forces together won a majority of seats they would not rule out accepting support in the regional chamber from Vox.

Vox's campaigning had mainly been against illegal immigration and any decentralisation of powers from Madrid.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left Podemos party, called on all leftist groups to mobilise "to defend liberties, social justice, fraternity and ultimately democracy".

Diaz meanwhile called for "stability" as she ended her campaign, warning voters against forces of the right and far-right that "want to take us backwards". </s> A far-right party has gained its first electoral success in Spain since the country's return to democracy in the late 1970s. The ruling Socialists suffered a setback in the regional elections in Andalusia, with the anti-immigrant, extreme right Vox party claiming 12 seats in the 109-member regional parliament. It was the first electoral test for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s party since he took power in June. Vox had not previously held any seats in any legislative body in Spain since its founding four years ago, and now it has the key to forming a government in Spain’s most populated region. Spain only transitioned to democracy upon the death of former military dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

“Now is the moment to say loud and clear who we are and that we have come to stay,” a Vox candidate told a crowd of supporters who chanted “Spain! Spain! Spain!” Andalusia has been a Socialist bastion for 36 years, but the party could lose control of the government if parties on the right join forces to oust regional leader Susana Diaz, though that would require that they join forces with Vox. With 99% of the votes counted, the Socialists won the election, but saw their support plummet to just 33 seats, compared to 47 in 2015. That left the Socialists far from the majority of 55 seats needed to govern, even if they can get the backing of the far-left party Adelante Andalucia, which took 17 seats. “Despite winning the election it is a sad night for the Socialist Party,” Ms Diaz said. “There has been a real loss of ground for the Left. But the worst thing is that the extreme right, a phenomenon that has appeared in the rest of Europe, has arrived here.” The conservative Popular Party and centre-right Citizens party held 47 seats between them. That gives them fewer than the Socialists and Adelante Andalucia, so they would need the votes of Vox to reach the absolute majority.

Ms Diaz said she would call on other parties to “build a firewall against the extreme right in Spain”. “Each party must decide if they are against the extreme right or if they will rely on their support to enter into government,” she said. Vox’s platform includes a crackdown on immigration, a defence of Spain’s unity against Catalonia secessionists, restricting abortion and rolling back domestic violence laws. Two members of Vox shouted insults at Ms Diaz when she submitted her ballot early on Sunday in Seville. Vox said both people had been removed from their positions as voting monitors due to “inappropriate behaviour”. Mr Sanchez leads a minority government in Spain since he toppled former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who lost a no-confidence vote. There is speculation Mr Sanchez may call early elections if he cannot pass a national budget this year instead of serving out the legislative term that runs until 2020. </s> (CNN) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for April 28.

Sánchez made the announcement at a press conference in Madrid on Friday, saying: "I have informed the King. I will dissolve Congress and call for elections for the 28th of April."

The announcement comes two days after his Socialist government suffered a defeat in Parliament after failing to get its 2019 budget passed.

Spain's electorate is also set to vote in a series of local and European elections in May.

A busy electoral year follows on from December 2018 regional elections in the southern province of Andalucia, in which the far-right Vox party unexpectedly won 12 seats.
The Socialist and current regional President Susana Díaz wins the election, but loses 14 seats.