"[The] election has demonstrated that the Spanish people clearly want PSOE to rule over the next four years. We won the election and will rule in Spain… From our progressive position, we are ready to give a hand to all political forces that respect the constitution. We will not set the cordon sanitaire, the only condition we will set is the demand to respect the constitution, strive for social justice, normal coexistence in society and political purity," Sanchez said addressing his supporters in Madrid after the election.
The PSOE leader noted that the new socialist government would be "the government of all Spaniards."
Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Spanish left coalition Unidas Podemos that received 42 seats in the parliament, had already expressed readiness to form a coalition with PSOE.
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However, even if Unidas Podemos and PSOE manage to reach an agreement on building the coalition, they will need to get 11 more seats from small nationalist parties to form the government.
As for the right parties, the Christian democratic People's Party came second in the election, having received 66 seats in the parliament, the Citizens party has received 57 seats. The right-wing Vox party has received 24 seats.
PSOE secured 123 out of 350 parliamentary seats after almost all votes had been counted. Thus, the party, as it was predicted, failed to obtain an absolute majority of 176 seats to independently approve a prime minister and has to form a coalition with other parties.
The voters’ turnout stood at nearly 76 percent.