Partido Popular (People's Party) leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, centre, and Madrid regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso, right, wave to supporters from a balcony of the PP headquarters in Madrid. Photo: AFP
The leader of Spain's opposition conservative party Alberto Núñez Feijóo has claimed victory in a snap election, but without the result he needed.
Even with the support of the far-right, his Popular Party has fallen short of a majority in parliament.
The cheers at the rival Socialist camp were just as loud as Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared: "The reactionary bloc has failed."
While both can claim success, Spain is left with an inconclusive result.
Sánchez has been vindicated in his controversial decision to call elections in the searing heat of a Spanish summer, when temperatures reached 40C in some parts of the country.
"No pasarán," his supporters chanted - they shall not pass - referring both to far-right party Vox and the anti-fascist slogan of the Spanish civil war.
But it was Feijóo who told cheering supporters that it was now his duty to try to form a government. "Spaniards know we have gone from being the second force to the party with the most votes," he said.
But with Vox on 33 seats and his PP on 136, they would be seven seats short of an absolute majority in parliament, so the most likely result of this election is another poll by the end of the year. That is why Sánchez's Socialists and his far-left allies Sumar can feel happy.
The 70 percent turnout was remarkably higher than in 2019, despite the summer heat. That was partly due to almost 2.5 million postal votes being cast, but polling stations were busiest in the morning before the heat took hold.
Vox remains the third biggest party, with the support of three million of Spain's 37 million voters, but not significantly ahead of Sumar and with a big drop in seat numbers.
Voting numbers were buoyed by 1.6 million young voters having the right to take part in the election for the first time.
An estimated 10 million Spaniards are already on holiday and some voters turned up at coastal polling stations carrying their beach chairs while one man made a point of wearing a snorkel and flippers.
A couple called Pilar and Luis who got married in Granada on Saturday headed out to vote in their wedding clothes hours after their party ended the night before.
Many voters said they felt there was too much at stake in this election, even if it was being held in mid-summer. One father of three, called Sergio, told the BBC that many people he knew were anxious and angry that an extreme-right party might end up in government.
But Vox voters came out in force too, backing leader Santiago Abascal's platform of anti-immigration and anti-feminism.
- This story was first published by the BBC