With more than 98 percent of the votes cast, the largest opposition party, the Spanish conservative People's Party (PP), won 120 of the 208 directly elected Senate seats, 37 more than in its previous mandates.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which is governing in the term that has just ended, can seat 72 senators in the upper house of parliament, 21 fewer than before.

He lost two mandates and the right-wing VOX party did not enter the Senate. Among the large national parties, the newly formed formation called Sumár did not win a place in the upper house, which includes several left-wing parties.

This time, nine parties were represented in the 266-member upper house, compared to the previous eleven. The other fifty-eight senators are delegated by the parliaments of the autonomous provinces.

After the elections, the lower and upper houses of the new parliament are expected to hold their inaugural session on August 17.

The People's Party is trying to form a government despite the lack of a parliamentary majority. Party chairman Alberto Núnez-Feijóo spoke about this on Monday morning, after thanking his supporters at the party's headquarters in Madrid.

A huge crowd gathered in front of the downtown building waved Spanish flags, cheered and chanted to celebrate the result, with which the party increased its support four years ago by 3 million votes and its parliamentary representation by 47 mandates.

Alberto Núnez-Feijóo asserted that the Spaniards sent a message to the parties with their votes to continue dialogue. "As the candidate of the party that received the most votes, it is my duty to open the dialogue and try to govern our country in accordance with the election results," he said.

"No one should be tempted to obstruct this process, especially the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)," the conservative leader warned.

Santiago Abascal, president of VOX, called it very bad news that Pedro Sánchez, the current acting prime minister, PSOE secretary general, could obstruct the formation of a PP government even after losing the elections. Moreover, it can even govern "with the support of communism, terrorism and separatism", he added, referring to the other left-wing, Basque nationalist and Catalan independence parties that reached parliament.

He reiterated that in order to curb the mobilization, some media outlets manipulated during the campaign and called for the demonization of VOX.

He emphasized: they will continue to resist, either in opposition or in a repeated parliamentary election, but they will not disappoint the voters who once again made the party the third political force.

MTI