With 97% of the votes counted, Spain’s political Right is ahead of the Left but may still be unable to form a government.
At 11:30 Sunday night, the ruling socialists, Partido Socialista Obero Español, were 14 seats behind the centre-right Partido Popular.
The conservative VOX obtained 33 seats, 19 less than in the previous elections.
The PSOE’s ally, Sumar, has won 31 seats.
The absolute majority is 176 seats in the 350-seat congress of deputies, which elects the president and his accompanying cabinet.
Though the PP and VOX together have 169 seats compared to the 153 of the principal political Left—represented by PSOE and Sumar—regional parties can still tip the scales to favour the Left.
Together, regional parties have won 28 seats, with the Catalan and Basque separatist parties that have supported the current government winning a total of 13 seats.
Unless the PP, or perhaps a PP-VOX coalition, can garner the remaining 15 seats in its favour, Spain will either go to new elections or end up with the same socialist-led coalition of the last four years.
The wild cards are the Catalan Junts Per Cat and the Basque PNV, which have supported both right and left-leaning governments.
Spain will be on pins and needles over the next weeks awaiting its political fate.
