Spain's far right win big in divisive election

The far right has made sweeping gains in Spain's general election.

The Vox party more than doubled its number of lawmakers, in an election gamble that didn't pay off for the acting Socialist Prime Minister.

Sanchez called a repeat national election after an inconclusive vote in April, hoping to boost his mandate.

Instead his socialist party have lost seats, with no party winning an overall majority.

There were celebrations in the capital for supporters of Vox though.

After the vote, it's now Spain's third biggest party.

They'll now be hoping to have more influence in decision-making.

Their platform is anti-Muslim, anti-feminist, nationalist, and critical of the European Union.

Its leader has referenced founders of fascist ideology and - perhaps most significantly - it aims to re-write the Spanish constitution to abolish regional autonomy.

That's struck a chord with voters after unrest in Catalonia.

Pro-independence protests in the region seem to have significantly boosted Vox's popularity with the rest of Spain.

There'll now have to be some creative thinking in parliament to figure out who should lead the deeply divided country.

The Socialists still have the most seats, but not enough to govern alone.

In his speech on Sunday (November 10), Pedro Sanchez vowed to put a stable government together, after years of political uncertainty:

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SPANISH ACTING PRIME MINISTER AND SOCIALIST LEADER, PEDRO SANCHEZ, SAYING:

"We call on all political parties, except those that exclude themselves from co-existence and plant a discourse of hate and anti-democracy."

Starting Monday (November 11) there'll be tough negotiations to be made to figure out which parties can come together and reach a governing majority.